In April, 1961, the Prime Minister of Australia, Sir Robert Menzies, commenting on the death of Rivett, said: 'David Rivett was one of the greatest Australians of our time. He combined an absolute first class mind and great scientific attainments with a generous outlook and a quiet, but pervading, enthusiasm. Scientific research in Australia owes a great deal to him'. The international scientific journal, Nature, in its issue of June 10, 1961, said that Rivett was 'a man who had contriubted perhaps more than any other to the present healthy state of Australian science. ...Rivett and his colleagues contrived, in a country woefully weak in research, to create an atmosphere in which it could flourish. ... Once one had gained his confidence he was a magnificent friend and backer; he believed in delegating responsibility and with it any credit that accrued, but in times of adversity he it was who wished to shoulder the blame. ... (Inside cover)