Valerie Todd Davies

Valerie Todd married George Davies, who she had known from girlhood in 1948. She died on 29 October 2012 and was survived by their three children.

Davies was a member of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW) and from 1978–1982 was deputy chair of the Queensland Rhodes Scholarship selection committee.

In 1972, Davies was appointed curator of arachnids at the Queensland Museum. She worked as a senior research curator at the Queensland Museum until her retirement in 1985 but continued working as an honorary consultant at the museum until the age of 82.

The Davies family moved to Brisbane in 1963 when George was appointed professor of social and preventive dentistry at the University of Queensland. Valerie Davies tutored part-time in the department of zoology, at the University of Queensland from 1964–1972. They built a house in 1965, designed by architect Maurice Hurst, on the banks of the Brisbane River at Fig Tree Pocket – Awanui.

Todd was awarded a post-graduate travelling scholarship in science to Somerville College, Oxford, where she completed her PhD. She returned to Dunedin in 1948 to marry George Davies, who was a lecturer in dentistry at the University of Otago.

Valerie Todd Davies (born 29 September 1920 in Makirikiri, near Wanganui, New Zealand, died 29 October 2012 in Brisbane, Queensland) was an arachnologist who described many species of spider.

Valerie Ethel Todd (later Valerie Davies after her marriage) was born 29 September 1920 in Makirikiri, near Wanganui, in New Zealand. She attended Wanganui Girls' College and then studied her BSc at Victoria University in Wellington in 1939. She continued her studies toward a MSc at Otago University in Dunedin, graduating in 1943. Her thesis researched trap-door spiders. Upon graduation she worked as a research assistant and later an assistant lecturer in zoology at Otago University.