This week his son, Wanaka resident Colin Townsend, is one of thousands of people in Normandy marking the 75th anniversary of the World War 2 landings on the northern French beaches.
''I haven't seen the beaches myself, so I have been really looking forward to sharing that experience with my brothers,'' Prof Townsend (70), an emeritus professor of zoology at the University of Otago, said.
''It will be sobering, no doubt about that, and a good time to think about Dad and what he and so many others went through 75 years ago.''
Prof Townsend's father, Wilf, was a Royal Navy signals officer whose role on D-Day was to co-ordinate the arrival of a flotilla of 135 landing craft containing men and equipment.
The English sailor's June 6 began on Utah Beach, where the US 4th Infantry Division landed 21,000 troops with only 197 casualties.
''He said when he landed there was heavy shelling. He saw at least one landing craft hit and sunk.''
With things progressing relatively smoothly at Utah and troops already advancing inland by 9am, Wilf Townsend was ordered to assist at Omaha, the most heavily defended beach and scene of carnage during the morning.
''Soon after his arrival, a friend, whose surname was Jeffries, was shot dead next to him ... my older brother is named Jeffrey in memory of Dad's colleague.
''When I think about it, I find it almost inconceivable that a 22-year-old could go through that experience, let alone be in a leadership position and be responsible for hundreds and hundreds of men.''
Wilf Townsend spent three days on Omaha.
Before his death in 1994, Wilf described in an interview for his local newspaper in Devon his first experience of hand-to-hand fighting: ''The casualties were horrific, bodies were piled high ... I lost religion on that beach.''
The June 6 landings began the liberation of France and were a vital step towards victory in World War 2.
They are generally regarded by historians as being a piece of skilled military planning, but Wilf Townsend's recollections were the postponement of the landings from June 5 to the following day caused chaos.
''He talked about men ignoring orders and going to shore that night and drinking; I've not heard that anywhere else,'' Prof Townsend said.
''He talked about it being almost impossible to get the convoy back in order, and while that didn't mean that the landing wouldn't work, it meant all that meticulous planning as to this landing craft comes in first, this one second and then the tanks, wasn't as neat and tidy as that by a long shot.''
