Douglas Saxon CoombsCNZM (23 November 1924 – 23 December 2016) was a New Zealand mineralogist and petrologist.
Early life and family
Born in the Dunedin suburb of St Clair on 23 November 1924, Coombs was the son of architect Leslie Douglas Coombs and Nellie Vera von Tunzelmann Coombs (née Saxon), and the nephew of Ken Saxon.[1][2][3][4] He was educated at King's High School,[5] and played cricket for Otago in the 1942–43 season as a right-hand batsman and leg-break bowler.[2]
First appointed an assistant lecturer in geology at Otago in 1947, Coombs became a professor in 1956. He retired in 1989 and was granted the title of professor emeritus.[9]
Coombs was noted for his studies of the rocks of the southern South Island of New Zealand. The mineral species coombsite, K(Mn2+, Fe2+, Mg)13(Si, Al)18O42(OH)14, is named for him.[10]