John Maunder

John Maunder

I first began my university life as a first year student at Otago in 1951 after 4 years at Nelson College and previous education at the Motueka District High School and the Takaka District High School. I recently attended the.150 th anniversary of the Takaka school.

In my first year at Otago I enrolled in pure mathematics, applied mathematics, and physics and was successful in two of those subjects. In my second year I enrolled in geography 1, and continued with maths. In my third year I completed geography 2, and completed applied maths and physics. During this time I met a number of fellow students including geology student Harry McQuillan, John Sinclair who went on an became prominent in the Presbyterian Church, and in his later years as a guide to the First Church of Otago in Dunedin. I also met dental student Graham Maxwell and we were active in the Otago University tramping group. One Easter we were leading a group of fellow students in Stewart island and while we thought we were on the right track our fellow students took the correct track and we were relieved that later in the afternoon we came across them.

During 1953, my friend geology student Harry Mc Quillan and I thought it would be a good idea for us to explore parts of Australia, so with some money we boarded the ship Wanganella in November 1953 for the cruise from Wellington to Sydney. On arrival we went north and arrived in the coastal town of Coffs Harbour, famous for its bananas. However, we found that our limited expertise would be better used in picking tomatoes and with assistance of the grower, we were able to use his truck to go round the streets of the town and sell our produce, not sure if we made much money but it was a good experience. We them went north to Brisbane and after a few days sightseeing we boarded the train to North Queensland. We learnt a good experience about not “missing the boat”, as on the second morning we thought there was time to see the local town, but on arrival back at the station we saw the back of the train leaving the station. A hurried taxis trip to the next stop! After about 30 miles we caught up with the train and re-joined our luggage.

A couple of days later, we got off in the small tobacco town of Ayr, and picked tobacco on a local farm for a week. Accommodation was provided, it enabled us to obtain some much needed money. Back on our travels we arrived at Townsville where we had the good fortune to meet up with Harry’s ham radio contact, and I we had Christmas with him and his family. This was the Christmas which was regrettably saddened by the death in NZ of 151 people in the Tangawai rail disaster. We spent a day on Magnetic Island and then went further north to Cairns, and further north to the Port Douglas. Very small in 1953, and onto Mossman which was the end if the real road. In April 2018 I was on a cruse ship in this area and it brought back many memories

Apart from the train trip in Queensland we a lot of hitch hiking, which was much easier than a trip would be today. On our trip south we stated in earnest on hitchhiking activities and just south of Ayr, a sailor from Newcastle gave us a 36 hour lift to Newcastle. The first night we slept under the tray of his truck. We got to Sydney and went into the Blue Mountains and were present when the Queen passed through! It was then across to South Australia all by hitchhiking and arrived in Renmark where we got a good job picking pears, with accomodation provided by the grower and with as many pears as we could eat.

After a interesting period in the Renmark we went on toward Adelaide where I remember we were invited to stay with people who pick us up at Elizabeth, I believe he was a butcher. Then onto Adelaide where we saw the sights and then onto Mount Gambia where we stayed overnight under stars by the Blue Lakes. Then around the coastal road to Melbourne. We then had a remarkable series if events where for about six nights we were picked up and invited to stay the night with the respective families. I remember in particular that we stayed in a very poor house, but their hospitality was exceptional.

So thank you to all those Australians who looked after us on our Australian OE. Then on to Sydney and back home to Wellington on the Wanganella and so to a new academic year at Otago.

I was also active in the University Colts rugby team which consisted of players who had played at their high school but were not robust enough to be considered with the University A or B teams which at that time had several players who represented Otago and later some players who became All Blacks. The names of some the players I was with are on a photograph I have of the winning Colts team in 1953. They include J J Laing, C J Mc Neil, W H Brown, R M Hannon, R W Webb, D S Borne, W H McLeod, and W H Dawson. C L Carter was the Club President, and T.C Svenson and H B Valentine were the coaches.

I boarded with people at Musselburgh during part of this time has got in invloved in the Musselburgh Presbyterian church where I met Alan Morgan, and Joe Taggett who both went on to to be come ministers of the church

Mainly because of the availability of a Geography 3 course on Anglo-America, I decided to complete my BSc. at Canterbury and was successful in Geography 3 and Pure Maths 3. Among my teachers in the geography department was Murray Mc Caskill who went on to be head of geography at Flinders University in Adelaide. I can't remember my lecturer in Pure Maths 3 but he must have made an impression on me and my future career with my understanding of the mathematical mysteries of of the atmosphere.

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After completed my BSc. I then joined the NZ Meteorological Service as a trainee weather forecaster. I stayed there in Kelburn,Wellington for for 3 years. I then spent a year with the Canadian Meteorological Service, initially in Toronto, and the RCAF station at Trenton, before being posted to the RCAF station in Claresholm, Alberta where I instructed NATO students in northern hemisphere meteorology. I then returned to the Met Service, married Melva the girl next door, and spent time aviation forecasting at Paraparaumu and Wellington Airports. At that stage two university positions were advertised and I was fortunate to be appointed lecturer in the geography department at Otago, and my colleague John Rayner a graduate Ohio State universe was apponted to the University of Canterbury.

On arrival in Dunedin in February, 1961 the university offered us a flat in Castle Street which while adequate ensued that we waited no time in buying a house. So while Melva searched for a house to buy I was welcomed into the geography department. The head of the department Ron Lister introduced me to other staff, namely Bill Brockie a physical geographer from Scotland, Ray Hargreaves an historical geographer with strong ties to the Hochen library, and the experienced biogegrapher Stewart Cameron. Later we were joined by historical geographer Jim Forest and human geographer Brian Heenan. I recall, that were were a happy group with Ron Lister having a informal staff meeting in Hugh Kidd's office/drafting room every day. In fact I cannot recall Ron Lister asking us to attend a formal staff meeting. I remember that on one occasion that it was suggested by Ron that a staff student/photo would be taken next day, the only problem was that only those who were at that morning tea knew about it and several including Ray Hargreaves missed out

Of course prior to my arrival Otago, the geography department had a long history with among others the well known climatologist Ben Garnier being head of the department, assisted by Alan Tweedie, and Eileen Eliot.

We soon found a house to buy and spent six happy years on the hill above Forbury Corner with a very nice water view across to the St Clair beaches. During his time my neighbour George Banfield and I went into partnership in the ownership of a goat. The goat was free but we had to pay thirty shillings for the chain. The goat kept the gorse in the adjacent properties under control, and apart from a few occasions when the goat got off its chain and wandered up the road to sample a few nice roses the neighbours were quite happy with our purchase. George’s daughters names the goat Tony after Antony Armstrong Jones from royalty days. A couple of years later a student Colin Denison knowing that I had a goat aske me if I could look,after his goat Marjorie during the summer break. I was happy to oblige and just before Christmas an envelope arrive addressed to Miss Marjorie the goat care of John Maunder with instructions to "give to the goat”.

During my time in the department I gave lectures and ran practical courses on climatology, physical geography, statistics for geography students, and the geography of Anglo America. I remember that during this I asked my students to prepare a paper on some aspects of the United States. I recall only one of the contributions by, if I remember correctly, Colon Denison on the political aspects of the United States including how the Electoral College decides who will be the next President. During my last year at Otago it was my privilege to lead a graduate course in climatology with some very interesting and informative students including Dave Leslie who went on to the soil bureau of the DSIR, Blair Fitzharris who after graduating with a PhD at the University of British Columbia returned to be head of geography at Otago, and Barry Fahey who competed an MSc thesis under my guidance on the interception of rainfall by pine trees in an Otago catchment. Plus //////

During my time at Otago it was possible for staff members to enrol for a Ph D., which involve a minimum of four years work in contrast to a minimum of two years for a full time student . As was usual n New Zealand at that time no lectures were required to be taken, and you really were on you own in terms of your research project. Ron Lister was appointed by the university to be my supervisor and Ron was very helpful in keeping me on the straight and narrow even those his knowledge of my subject was mainly foreign to him. The topic I chose was. "The effect of climatic variations on agricultural production in New Zealand". Although with my background in the Meteological Service I was very familiar with climate variations, my knowledge of economics was minimal, although my father being a manager of a Bank of New Zealand must have rubbed off into me. I was also not really interested in the biological process in agriculture, but only the final outcome, notably what is produced in terms of bushels of wheat per acre, or milk produced per cow. Following decisions with several people, several indicated that variations of production per acre, or per cow, or per sharp, or per tree on a county basis, and then link this data with the relevant climate data from one or more climatic stations in each county, and compute a multi regression analysis my findings. I wash helped in this regard by George Spiers of the Otago Medical School who correctly guided me though the differences between associating and causative factors in multiple regression analyses.

While the availability of agricultural production data seemed to be straight forward such as bushels per acre per county over 20 to 30 years obtained mainly from published data, as well as milk production per cow rom the NZ Dairy Board, the availability of beef and lamb production per animal and per county, as well as wool production per animal proved to be quite difficult. On talking to a person with long experience in the Department of Statistics I was informed that in the 1920's, wool production per farm and animal was collected but in the 1930's this had been changed to collecting data farm machinery. Fortunately for me the Economic Service of the NZ Meat and Wool,Boards were aware of this difficulty and the service established in the 1950's a "bible" of 500 sample farms which were visiting by their field officers on a regular basis. The economic service gave me special permission to look at this data and I am indebted to ... Bevan the director of the service, as well as Ken Keen ?, and ..., who were of great assistance to me in compelling the production data which I could then link to climate data.

The University of Otago did not have a computer during my time their, and among other things this involved sending punched cars in boxes on a bus to Christchurch where my colleague at Canterbury University fed them into their IBM 1620 computer and then return the completed paper analyses to me by return bus the following night. Otago did however had a Burroughs accounting machine housed in the registrar's office office, and I was given permission to use this machine at the weekend. This involved wiring a boards like an electric switch board with wires so that what was in position i say A1 would be printed in row K24. It's seems so primitive by today's standards but to quote Walter Cronkite of CBS fame, "That's it way it was”.

The Otago regulations regarding an oral exam for a PhD involved one's supervisor, an examiner external to Otago University and a supervisor outside New Zealand. I suggested to Ron Lister my Otago supervisor that R.H Bevin, Director of the Meat and Wool Board's Economic Service to be an examiner outside of Otago, and that Professor Louis Thompson of the Department of Agronomy at the Iowa State University in the Untied States, who was writing in academic journals about his research which was similar to what I was doing in New Zealand. The university agreed with my suggestions. So on the due day, I was asked to attend my doctoral exam with Ron Lister and R.H Bevin being present. My work must have been to their satisfaction and that of Professor Thompson and I was asked only one question "If you were given $50,000 to do further work in this area what would you do”. A very penetrating question but after a few minutes my answer satisfied the examiners who agreed that irrespective of all the research I had done over the previous 4 years on this subject I knew very well that that there was lots more to do. I was subsequently awarded the 24th PhD from the University of Otago, which considering that, at that time the university had been in existence for 100 years is quite an interesting statistic. I remember that at an Otago University reception in Tauranga a few years ago I mentioned this fact to the Vice Chancellor who indicated that Otago now awarded many more than 24 PhD's a year.

So after graduating with a new PhD the opportunities offered in the Northern Hemisphere were interesting and I applied for positions at San Fernando State College in Los Angeles, the attraction being that I would be working with Professor Arnold Court a well known climatologist of the time who had done some pioneering work in Antarctica . However on the same day an offer came in from Los Angeles, I received an offer of employment from the Department of Geography at University of Victoria in British Columbia. After talking to a fellow Otago person who had been to both places he recommended that I accept the position at Victoria, which proved to open lots of opportunities.

So after six years teaching in the Department of Geography an an early three years as a student at Otago, my family and I said a fond farewell to the land of the Highlanders and entered new territory which would take me to Canada, then to the University of Missouri. back to Wellington, onto the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), back to Wellington, then to the University of Delaware, back to Wellington,and then back again to Geneva with WMO. But that is another story.

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Jim Salinger

After visiting John Maunder in Mellor House in the 1960’s I decided to embark on climate as a career path. I was a student majoring in physical geography 1966-1969, as well as Zoology. During this period I established a network of 50 raingauges around the Dunedin so as to investigate rainfall patterns around the greater Dunedin area. After a gap year I commenced at the Otago Medical School in 1970 to work as a scientist in John Harris's lab in the Physiology Department researching on nerve/muscle interaction. This took me to the Salk Institute in La Jolla, San Diego. The Salk Institute embodies Jonas Salk’s mission to dare to make dreams into reality. It explores the very foundations of life, seeking new realities in neuroscience, genetics, immunology and more. It is small by choice, and staff live to discover, be it cancer or Alzheimer’s, aging or diabetes. I worked in Dave Schubert's lab on nerve/muscle interaction. This was very formulating for my career as I learnt in Big Science you put your head down and 'went for it' - a good lesson for later on. There I met fellow kiwi Jim Watson, later who headed up a new department in microbiology at the University of Auckland, then set up Genesis Research Ltd., New Zealand’s first biotech company. He became President of the Royal Society of New Zealand in the 2000s.

On return to Dunedin I continued work on nerve/muscle interaction. However climate interests were never too far away and with Blair Fitzharris we set up six climate stations around the city and broadcast temperatures each day from these on Radio Otago (4XO). In 1975 I noticed a feature in the Otago Daily Times (ODT) titled “The next ice age cometh” by Reid Bryson. His view was the planet was blocked not by clouds but by dust and descending into the next Ice Age. The shoddy analysis of observed temperatures of the time did not show unambiguous warming and he held the view that the earth might be heading for much more cooling. The temperature analysis used few climate stations and hardly any in the Southern Hemisphere. Otago University geography student Jill Gunn and I determined from temperature records that the wider New Zealand region was warming, and submitted our response to ODT features editor, Robin Charteris titled “Our weather is warming up”. We uncovered that the climate in these maritime parts of the Southern Hemisphere had warmed up, with temperature increases commencing in the late 1940s. This led us to publish a paper in the science journal Nature. In it we were critical of the wisdom of the time, foreshadowing the descent into the next Ice Age:

“...data for the Southern Hemisphere used so far have chiefly been obtained from locations between the Equator and 40 °S. Information from higher latitudes, where any variations are amplified, is sparse. Here we present the results of an examination of a small area in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere which has been warming over the past thirty years.” Nature Vol 31; July 1975.

To our surprise the paper was featured in The Times as it challenged the wisdom of the time. So it was time for a career change, prompted by the ODT feature, by moving to Wellington to investigate thoroughly, New Zealand’s changing climate!

And that’s where my career as a climate scientist really started. My main work was doing a Ph D whilst being a Junior Lecturer in Harvey Franklin’s Department of Geography at Victoria University of Wellington, research New Zealand’s climate from the instrumental records. I also did air pollution surveys of Upper Hutt City, and with Tom Clarkson and David Wratt of the New Zealand Meteorological Service we tracked the cold air flow on still calm nights down the Upper Hutt basin. And of course I established a climate network in the Wellington area where we published daily maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall around the suburbs which was published in the Evening Post, and to this day still published in the Dominion Post!

Once my Ph D was completed it was time to travel again, this time to the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich in the UK to do my post-doc in 1980 and 1981. There I met up with lifetime friends and colleagues Phil Jones, Jean Palutikof and Tom Wigley. We were researching on the global instrumental temperature record and and global patterns of climate change. Whilst there I first met up with Chris Folland of ther UK Meteorological Office, and we did quite a bit of work together in the 1990’s and after. On return I commenced work at the New Zealand Meteorological Service from 1982.

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Barry Fahey

After graduating from Otago Boys’ High School in Dunedin in 1958, and having enjoyed working with maps at school and walking the hills surrounding the city, I decided to enrol in a BA programme at Otago, majoring in Geography. Bill Brockie (geomorphology), Stewart Cameron (biogeography) and John Maunder (climatology) furthered my interests in physical geography with their stimulating lectures. I was also fortunate to have Professor David Linton, who was visiting from the University of Birmingham, as my Stage 1 Physical Geography lecturer. I remember him presenting his lectures impeccably dressed, and without any notes. Hugh Kidd referred to him reverentially as The Great Man. Prior to his visit, he had published a couple of seminal papers on the granite tors of Dartmoor, which helped stimulate my subsequent research interests in the schist tors of Central Otago. Another lasting memory is of Jim Forrest, who was the resident Urban Geographer, valiantly trying to lecture us on soils and biogeography at Stage 2. It was only when I was faced with a similar situation of having to lecture outside of my main area of expertise later in my own career that I realised what challenge it could be.

I graduated in 1961 with a double major in Geography and Geology, and with a growing interest in geomorphology which seemed to embody the best of both disciplines. It was then, however, that I realised that it was about time I gave some consideration to what I would like to do by way of a career. So I took a trip to Wellington to talk to potential employers. I had a particularly positive response from Kees Toebes, who had recently arrived from the Netherlands, and was trying to raise the profile of hydrology in New Zealand. He suggested I work for the NZ Hydrological Survey in Green Island in the summer holidays, which I did so for two years. This prompted an interest in hydrology which carried over into my search for a thesis topic for my Masters' degree at Otago. With some help and encouragement from Lance McCaskill, who was then Director of the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute at Lincoln, and Alan Mark in the Botany Department at Otago, I began a study of rainfall interception under radiata pine in the Silverstream catchment. This was completed in 1964. About that time Bob Dils, Professor of Forestry at Colorado State University was visiting New Zealand, and he encouraged me to consider furthering my graduate studies in North America.

It was then decision time: whether to stay in NZ and work in hydrology, or head offshore to do post-graduate studies. The decision was made for me when Kees Toebes told me I would need to do mathematics to Stage III if I was to have a successful career in hydrology! To me that was a rather scary and unobtainable goal. I subsequently applied, and was duly accepted into a PhD programme in the Geography Department at the University of Colorado in Boulder, which I was told had a strong emphasis on water resources. However, I quickly discovered that there was no one with any real expertise in hydrology in the Geography Department at Boulder. Indeed, my appointed supervisor’s only claim to fame in this field was based on two publications: The Hunting and Fishing Guide of Colorado and Wyoming, Volumes1 and 2. I also enrolled in a couple of graduate courses in hydrology and watershed management at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where I first met Dave Murray who was about to complete his MSc. With no one in Boulder who seemed to have research interests on hydrology, I began to think that I would be better off if I gravitated back to my other great interest: geomorphology. Co-incidentally, about that time, Jack Ives from Canada was appointed as Director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado. He was a dynamic individual with lots of great research ideas, and he soon had me working on a topic involving periglacial landform development on the Niwot Ridge in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies.

After graduating in 1970, I accepted a teaching position in the Geography Department at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and spent the next 15 years undertaking research into periglacial landforms in the Colorado Rockies and on Baffin Island in the eastern Canadian Arctic, as well as conducting laboratory-based investigations into the efficacy of periglacial processes in alpine environments. I also spent two productive sabbaticals back in the Geography Department at Otago studying the age and origin of the upland schist tors of Central Otago, and associated landforms.

I had always been keen to return to NZ, and that opportunity presented itself during my second sabbatical at Otago in 1984. I visited the Forest Protection Division of the Forest Research Institute on the Ilam campus at the University of Canterbury that year, and mentioned my interest in returning to NZ to the Director. Colin O’Loughlin. He was looking for someone with a background in geomorphology and hydrology to set up a research programme on road erosion in steepland forests, and my background seemed to fit the bill. My application was successful, and I joined FRI in September 1985. My association with FRI rekindled my interest in hydrology, and especially the effect of land-use change on water yield, sediment yield, and water chemistry, and within a few years I found myself working through volumes of data from catchment studies operated by FRI at Maimai near Reefton, and Donald Creek in northwest Nelson. With the road erosion programme nearing completion I was also able to focus more on tussock grassland hydrology, and in 1993, I began working with Dave Murray, who was then a Senior Lecturer in the Department, on whether snow tussock was able to augment streamflow through fog interception, using water balance data collected from a large weighing lysimeter located on Swamp Summit. This proved to be a rather controversial topic, and has generating much debate among hydrologists and ecologists on the relative importance of fog interception in the water balance of tussock grasslands in Otago.

It was about this time that my research group in the old FRI became part of the newly established CRI, Landcare Research. I continued with my interest in the land-use change hydrology, and also assumed responsibility for the operation of the Glendhu experimental catchments in the headwaters of the Waipori River which had been established in 1980 to assess the environmental impacts of converting tussock grassland to plantation forestry. These catchments have served as a natural laboratory for a variety of investigations undertaken by students in the Geography Department at Otago leading to the awarding of number of BSc and MSc theses, and at least one PhD.

I went on to reduced hours at Landcare in 2002, and officially retired in 2005. However, I have retained my association with Landcare as a RA, with my primary role in maintaining the operation of the Glendhu catchment study, which has now provided over 35 years of high quality comparative data on the afforestation of tussock grasslands. Harvesting commenced in the forested catchment in early 2014, and is scheduled for completion later this year. Collaboration with the Department continues with input from Sarah Mager, and her post-graduate students on research into evaporation and suspended sediment yields at Glendhu.

When I look back on my research interests over the years, they can be summed up in two words: tussocks and tors. I am thankful for the Department and the staff there for assisting me over the years in making a contribution to our understanding of these iconic features of Otago’s natural landscape.

Warren Jowett - Short Bio

After graduating from Otago University with an M.Sc.hons in Geography, I trained to be a secondary school teacher at Christchurch Teacher’s College and began my teaching career in the Waikato at Matamata College.

I left teaching and worked from 1970 to 1972 as a computer systems analyst for a commercial bureau in Christchurch before returning to teaching at Shirley Boys’ High School in Christchurch from 1972 to 1989. I was Head of Science at Shirley. During this time I spent a year at Lincoln University (then College) as a Teaching Fellow in the Plant Science Department and was then seconded to the Department of Education in 1979 to prepare education material for the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. I also travelled to Australia to study educational centres in botanic gardens and was awarded a Woolf Fisher Travelling Fellowship. During the 1980’s I was a member of a group of people who established the New Zealand Association of Environmental Education, becoming the inaugural president.

In 1990 I shifted to Fairlie and took up the position of principal of Mackenzie College. I resigned from this position in 1998 and shifted to Staveley in Mid Canterbury and together with my wife Marita, established a nature tour business, Tussock & Beech Ecotours. We ran this until 2016 when we shifted to Dunedin where we now live. Marita and I have been working part-time over recent years in guiding birding tours through New Zealand for groups of mainly American birders.

Ian Simpson

I graduated with a Masters degree in 1964 - with the invaluable help of my wife and mother-in-law who did the shading on the second and third copies of no fewer than 62 maps and charts for my urban-based thesis. Actually, I did contemplate taking uptown planning as a vocation but the thought of having to pay off four years of the teaching studentship I had been awarded on leaving school was a harsh reality check and I decided to go to Christchurch Teachers College and complete my teacher

training.

I was successful in obtaining a teaching position at Kaikorai Valley High School

commencing 1964 - along with another of my Geography class-mates, Brian Tegg -

where we both profited hugely from our association with another geography graduate

from Otago, the late David Barham. I taught Geography, Social Studies, Phys Ed.

and English while at Kaikorai Valley (1964 - 1966) and also started a Diploma of

Education. I also thoroughly enjoyed my first experience of coaching school sports

teams - the 1st cricket XI, 1st Basketball team and Under 14B Rugby team but, to do

so, had to give up my own playing careers in senior rugby (Zingari-Richmond) and

cricket (University).

I guess I was always ambitious and, in order to have my teaching career open up, I

applied for and was appointed to Cromwell District High School as Senior Secondary

Assistant in order to complete my “country service” requirements in 1967. This turned

out to be a fantastic job with the school having just been through a public scandal.

(One of the teachers had run off with one of the senior students to Australia!!) I was

responsible for some 70 form 3 - 7 students and another 3.5 teachers while the

Principal led the Primary School. But, the two divisions were some 500 metres from

each other and the Principal, Cuth Rivers, nearing retirement, was happy to leave me

to do my own thing. That amounted to doing everything that was expected of

Principals in large urban high schools and was a fantastic learning experience for

what was to come later in my career. A special highlight of my time at C.D.H.S was

the acknowledgement from the Regional Superintendent of Education of the fantastic

School Certificate results our pupils received. While in Cromwell, I was able to

complete the Diploma of Education that I had commenced while at K.V.H.S, through

Massey University.

In 1971 I was appointed PR2, Head of the Social Sciences Department at Gore High

School and worked alongside Matt Henderson (another Geography graduate from

Otago) and Ross Cantrick (History). During my six years at Gore High I was co-

opted by the Department of Education in an advisory capacity to help the smaller

schools in rural Southland and Otago to adjust to the requirements of new curricula. I

also marked School Certificate. Along with Matt and Ross and another geography

graduate in John Hogue, we established a very strong department with two Form

Seven Geography classes. It wasn’t seen in a positive sense, however by the Rector

Doug Olsen, who called me to his office and refused to appoint another teacher to the

Social Sciences even though student numbers required it. ;”You are just empire-

building” he said. This was in 1977 and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that my

prospects at Gore were done!

I rang Arch Wilson the Principal of the newly established Logan Park High School in

Dunedin and with whom I had taught at Kaikorai Valley High, told him what had

happened and asked him if he had a job for me. He was able to offer me a PR1 Head

of Integrated Studies (combining elements of English, Social Studies and Commercial

Practice) which I gladly accepted, up-rooting my wife and three children yet again!

Three months later, he promoted me to a PR3 Administration mainly to cover for the

Deputy Principal who was struggling with serious health problems.

Arch was a fantastic man and an inspirational leader who never stopped telling his

students that they were “the best in Dunedin”; even though there were many from the

old King Edward Technical College, from which Logan Park developed, who tried us

out at times! Arch was to tragically lose his life on Mt Aspiring just a year later.

During my four years at L.P.H.S. I was active in national syllabus revision and was

appointed to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority Advisory Board and as its

Moderator in Educational Administration. (A grandiose title but it never got off the

ground!) A highlight for me came in 1980 when I was selected for a Japan

Foundation Scholarship with three other teachers from New Zealand, spending three

weeks in Japan as the guests of the Foundation. The slide collection that I collected

while there became a special resource for the teaching of Japan in the School

Certificate syllabus.

By 1981 I was beginning to get restless again and found myself applying for the

Deputy Rector position at King’s High School. Little did I know that the then Rector

of King’s, Jack Bremner, was intending to retire again at the end of that year. So it

was, that I found myself applying for the Principalship before the year was out.

In retrospect, the one year that I had as Deputy Rector was invaluable. When

appointed as Rector I knew what I had to do. Public opinion about the school was at

an all time low and, as a consequence, the roll had dropped from 750 to 480. Even

the Regional Superintendent, in congratulating me on my appointment cautioned me

that “if you don;t improve things”, the school will have to be closed! (The school

buildings were in such disrepair that it would not be worth spending the millions that

would be needed to bring them up to standard if the roll was to drop any further!)

I had 17 years as Principal of King’s, during which time the roll increased to over

1,000 and a decision was made - after a lot of lobbying and support from the Hon.

Michael Cullen who was our local MP - for whole school to be rebuilt. The re-build

of the school was in stages, of course and, while, for the first stage we had an external

project manager, for all the subsequent stages I was expected to do this additional

responsibility as well as the normal roles of a Principal!

Amongst other highlights, I was awarded a Woolf Fisher Scholarship in 1993 which

enabled Glenda and I the opportunity to spend three months in the U.K., Europe,

Canada and the U.S.A., visiting a huge range of schools and taking in any special

features that might have relevance to the new school being built back home. One in

Alberta had a catering suite and an automotive repair shop where students gained

qualifications in those trades before leaving school. Of course, such facilities didn't’

exist in the b... Department Manuals and it took a Supportive Minister in Hon.

Lockwood Smith to allow those special facilities to be included in the new school at

King’s. (Glenda and I were recently given the opportunity to look through the school

and to see boys working in those special facilities and which I had worked so hard for,

gave us both a real buzz.)

I enjoyed my years of Principalship, but I also found an interest in school politics,,

being elected Vice President on the first Executive of the Secondary School

Principals’, Association (SPANZ) in 1992, then as the full-time President in 1994 and

1995. During that period I represented New Zealand at a number of international

conferences (Edinburgh 1991; Geneva 1993; Paris 1994; Sydney 1995) and in 1997

was invited to be a Presenter at the Boston Conference - paper entitled “Appraising

the Performance of Teachers”. I was elected a Life Member of SPANZ in 1998.

In 1995, while at King’s, I was appointed to the Council of the University of Otago,

retiring in 1998 to chair the board of the newly-established Foundation Studies

Company which provided preparatory courses for international students before their

commencement of full university courses. I retired from the Chairmanship of

Foundation Studies in 2009.

I have always believed that extra-curricular activities have a major part to play in

establishing a positive school environment. Thus it was that I took a major role in

sports coaching at all of the schools in which I taught: Rugby and Cricket (1st XI) at

Kaikorai Valley High School - while still playing senior Rugby (Zingari-Richmond)

and senior Cricket (University); Rugby, Athletics and Cricket at Cromwell District

High School; Athletics team,1st XV Rugby and 2nd XI Cricket at Gore; Athletics

team, Rugby and 1st XI Cricket at Logan Park; 1st XI Cricket at Kings. Glenda also

spent many hours coaching the Athletics teams with me. Glenda’s contribution to the

extra-curricular activities at Kings cannot be underestimated. She introduced and

directed a number of musical shows including shows like Salad Days; and Fiddler

on the Roof. (To get them started, she encouraged the 1st XV boys to take part and

with their cooperation in that first year the annual musicals at Kings took off. Thus

the school musical - with Queens High School - has been an annual event ever since!

After retirement from Kings in 1997, I was used in an advisory capacity by the

Ministry to assist schools that were having difficulties, including being appointed as

Acting Principal of Forbury School (decile 2 at that stage) which had seen both the

Board and the Principal removed by the Ministry. I was Principal for six months until

a new permanent appointment had been made, at which time I was appointed as Chair

of a newly-elected Board, a position I held for the next three years.

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Pat Greig (Bird)

Finally I am going to try and master the word section on the computer !!!! I am afraid my “lifestory” since leaving Otago is very dull and uninteresting

I choose Otago as the University to go - in spite of the fact that I went to school in Hamilton (my teachers were all horrified at my choice “was I planning to marry a doctor” or if I must go to do Phys Ed). I choose Otago as it was the BEST and my parents came from there and my favourite Aunt did a MA from Otago Three of my children graduated from Otago ( to my delight) and Greig did a BA in geography after his Phys Ed degree – at the 50th reunion of our class when Hugh introduced me to Peter Holland, Hugh’s first comment was “you are Greig Bird’s mother “!!

After leaving Otago I taught at Hutt Valley High School till my first child Greig was born at the end of 1970. It was a good school in spite of the reputation it had in the 50’s scandal. I coached the first XI hockey and tennis and somehow managed to play senior hockey and tennis at the same time. Then there was 15 years of being a “stay at home” mother –with another 3 children born

Life consisted of the usual things La Leche, Playcenter, driver of children to their numerous activities (and there seemed to be lot of activities). I did play midweek ladies tennis and squash during that time and in spite of the name it was serious and very competitive Also ran the Rotorua Marathon – not sure why I did !

I went back teaching at Wellington College when Greig was in year 11 teaching mainly science and biology and coaching the 2nd XI hockey and managing the water polo team. I taught there for 15 years but-- with the birth of my first granddaughter I retired and did occasional relief teaching and exam supervision.

With 3 granddaughters in Wellington I have done a lot of babysitting especially when their Mother went back to work – the usual - taking them to swimming ballet, hockey — actually love it that all 3 play hockey – the joy of watching them on an all weather turf no more muddy fields With 3 at secondary school I am becoming redundant but it is great to go to their various activities.

I had great plans that when my husband (Peter) retired we would spend a lot more time at our beach house at Riversdale (East coast out from Masterton) –sadly he died 6 months after retiring so my plans for lots of golf and travelling have not come about but I do get to see Stuart in Auckland and Greig in Invercargill quite often.

So that is my life post Otago –nothing exciting at all, do go to the ballet –read a lot and go to a keep fit class and aquarobics, coffee and lunches with ex teacher friends. So I was Pat Greig (and now BIRD) and I think I may have been the first M.Sc. woman graduate from the geography dept – Hugh Kidd says the oldest science graduate !!!!!!!! Had 4 children )2 boys and 2 girls 8 and half grandchildren

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Michael Deaker

My Otago story goes on and on, and will continue until I’m absorbed into the subsoil somewhere in the region.

I left the Lister/Brockie/Maunder/Forrest /Hargreaves/Kidd environment in 1963, after four years for which I’m still grateful. Otago University geography was a broad, always interesting, and embracing environment. Thank you to those still around ... and those who have gone.

I trained to be a secondary teacher in Christchurch (because you had to back then) and taught for five years at Hillmorton High School. Loved it there. Lots of geography field trips, including annual glacial geomorphology expeditions to Mt Cook, McKenzie Basin, Queenstown. I kept that tradition going when I moved to Central Southland College for country service.

Then it all changed! I became head of English and got involved boots and all in English curriculum development and resource writing. I never taught geography again, and I’m still regretful about that.

But I never stopped being a geographer. Everywhere I go I’m peering at landscapes, interpreting, conjecting, photographing, and updating the lectures I give 20 or 30 times a year to groups of US Road Scholars (sort of U3A on wheels) for recently retired Americans. They study NZ in their several hundreds every summer and I introduce them to Otago and Southland. I’m even giving a lecture this month to a U3A in Wanaka on the landscapes of the south, and their origins.

The other thing I’ve never stopped since my first year at University of Otago, is journalism. I’m still at it on radio, 59 years later. Reporter, features writer, editorial writer, broadcaster, chair of TV discussion panels, book reviewer, provocative radio commentator twice a day on a national network for 10 years. I enjoyed it as much as my education career.

Talking of which, that all changed in the late 1970's, and not entirely in a good way. I had liked classroom teaching and leading an English department, but then I got too ambitious and became a deputy principal, and a principal. I wasn’t good at either of those and I really enjoyed getting back to education reality as a secondary school inspector, all over the South Island, from 1985. That was a positive and constructive experience.

The 1989 education reforms saw me become Otago manager for the new Ministry of Education, then South Island manager, then the national director of communications for the Ministry, in Wellington. I won’t bore you with any of that, but it was a stimulating eight years before another big career change.

I quit all the full time bureaucracy work, became “a consultant”, and went back to the journalism I had had to drop while working as a senior government official. I worked for UNESCO in Fiji, Tuvalu and Kiribati; for SEAPREAMS Ltd in Taiwan, Vietnam, Cook Islands, and Malaysia. I did project work in several colleges and universities, including Otago, right up until four years ago. I lead the planning and setting up of several new schools, and did a lot of work on the effectiveness of new school design all over NZ. And much else besides... working on my own account was a delight.

I had enjoyed six years on the Invercargill City Council way back in the 1970's, so went back into local government in 2001 on the Otago Regional Council. I’m just starting my seventh term and I still see what regional councils do as applied geography... which is why I’ve kept at it for so long and been stimulated by the work.

So thank you again, Otago geography. You prepared me for a lot, and I’ve done a lot with it, with a few mis-steps along the way. By the way: five children, three step-children; 22 grandkids. Not one, so far, is a geographer but they are wonderful people nonetheless.