Special Old Boys

Academic

Grant Cameron Dick  (At King’s High School from 1992 to 1996)

The King’s 1996 Dux, Associate Professor Grant Dick is Head of the Department of Information Science at the University of Otago. He has a background in Information Systems development and a PhD in evolutionary computation

His PhD thesis was in a field known as evolutionary computation, developing software that mimics natural selection in order to find multiple solutions to complex problems.  It is an idea with applications for finance, engineering, medicine and a broad range of other fields in which complicated decisions play a major role. Examples of Grant’s work have appeared in internationally-respected journals.

Grant’s overall research goal is to discover intelligent methods to solve difficult real-world problems. Broadly speaking, he is interested in computational intelligence methods and their application to scheduling, optimisation, data mining and multi-objective problem solving. There are many ways to solve a complex mathematical problem. You can do it the old-fashioned way, using pen and paper. Better still, you can program a computer to solve the problem for you. Or even better still, as Grant has discovered, you can program a computer to program itself to solve the problem for you.

Grant is the recipient of a University of Otago teaching award.

As well as being the King’s Dux, Grant, in his five years at King’s, collected numerous academic awards including Certificate of Credit – Australian Mathematics Competition 1995; Certificate of Distinction -Australian Science Competition 1995; Certificate of Commendation – Analytical Chemistry Competition 1996; Certificate of Merit – Chemistry 13 Examination 1995 and 1996.

During this time, he also gained Honourable Mention in the third form, General Excellence in Forms 4, 5 and 6, Form 5 Science Prize, Form 6 Chemistry and Computing Prizes and the prestigious Bremner Trophy for top student in Form 6.
But not all his efforts were not put toward academic excellence. For eight and a half years Grant has trained in Kyokushin, a physically and mentally demanding sport in which he achieved to a high level. In 1966 he gained his black belt after a gruelling six-hour grading.

David Hodge White (At King’s High School from 1954 to 1958)

David won a Blue for Life Saving. In 1957 he passed the Bronze Cross Examination and qualified for the Royal Lifesaving Instructors Certificate. In 1958 he was awarded a Bar to the Bronze Cross and the coveted Award of Merit. Along with D M Warrington he won the Challenge Rose Bowl for the Life Saving Pairs Championship.
David won the award for being the Flight Sergeant of the best Flight in the Air Training Corps.  

After leaving King’s David attended Lincoln University from 1959 to 1965. He gained a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 1963 and a Master of Agricultural Science Degree in the Sheep Husbandry and Wool Science in 1965. He also gained a Graduate Diploma of Electronic Computing (1970), Bendigo Institute of Technology, Victoria, Australia and became a Doctor of Philosophy (1975), University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. and the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, Canberra.

From 1996 to 2003 he was Director of ASIT Consulting in Canberra, Australia before becoming in 2003, the Director, ASIT Consulting, Long Beach, Australia

David became a Sheep and Wool Officer at Bendigo for the Victorian Department of Agriculture from 1967 to 1970. He undertook extension and field research, including stocking rate experiments, in northern Victoria

Then from 1971 to 74 he had PhD study leave at the University of New South Wales and the CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, Canberra; thesis topic Simulation models and sheep production. He was the recipient of Australian Wool Corporation Senior Scholarship

David became a research scientist in 1974 then he was promoted to Senior Research Scientist (1983-88) at the Animal Research Institute, Werribee; modelling, simulation and analysis of agricultural systems; managing Werribee Agricultural Systems Unit (WASU) within the Victorian Department of Agriculture.

He was a Principal Research Scientist from 1988 to 1991 then from 1991 to 1993 he became a Senior Principal Research Scientist at the Bureau of Rural Resources; managing Agricultural Systems and Information Technology Unit (ASITU). He was also principal editor of Agricultural Systems & Information Technology. In 1994 he was seconded to Rural Division, Department of Primary Industries & Energy (DPIE)

As Senior Principal Research Scientist, Agricultural Production & Natural Resources Branch, Bureau of Resource Sciences; principal scientific adviser to Rural Adjustment Scheme Advisory Council (RASAC) on Drought Exceptional Circumstances (DEC). He led a national research program on ‘Objective indicators of DEC’. As a member of the DEC Review team, he received DPIE Secretary’s Award in 1997 ‘For exceptional services in planning or delivery of services to clients. Dr White was the Director of ASIT Consulting in Agro-ecological Systems and Information Technology).  He is now mostly retired and ASIT is no longer consulting.

In his life post-retirement on the South Coast of New South Wales.  David is one of two scientific experts on the Eurobodalla Shire Coastal Management Advisory Committee                                                                                           

He has also been active inter also with: U3A Batemans Bay, Eurobodalla Parkinson’s Support Group and the Eurobodalla Natural History Society.

Ross Notman (At Kings High School 1965 to 1969)

Ross was Head Prefect in 1969, First Rugby Fifteen and the 1969 Athletics Team.

Prof Ross Notman (68) will retire as the University of Otago College of Education dean late this month, nearly 45 years after starting his teaching career at Taieri High School. There he taught English and French, and later Latin, classics, and physical education. He then taught in London, in Hounslow and Brentford, before returning to Dunedin’s Bayfield High School where he became deputy principal.

In 1990, Ross was seconded to the then Dunedin College of Education to become the secondary director of School Advisory Services.

There, he ran INSET (in-service training) courses for Otago and Southland teachers and supported a team of advisers seconded from schools around New Zealand.

In 1999, he joined the university’s Faculty of Education as foundation co-ordinator of secondary teacher education.

He was also foundation head of the college’s department of education studies and professional practice (2007-08) after the college and university merged. He was the foundation Head of Department, Education Studies and Professional Practice, at the new University of Otago College of Education between 2007 and 2008. In 2009, he was a Visiting Fellow to the Teacher and Leadership Research Centre at the University of Nottingham.

Ross has been director of Otago’s Centre for Educational Leadership and Administration since its establishment in 2010. He became Professor and Dean of the College of Education in 2017.

Ross has long been a member of several international organisations, has published extensively on school leadership, and has long been involved in professional development courses.

A keen tramper, he also hopes to complete more of New Zealand’s Great Walks, to enjoy biking, music and spending time with his children and grandchildren, and ‘‘attend more rugby matches’’.

John Harraway – Kings from 1956 – 1960

At the end of this year, Associate Prof John Harraway will retire from the University of Otago mathematics and statistics department for the third and final time.
Since he was appointed as an assistant lecturer in 1966, John has seen the University change from pens to computers, and from blackboards to smart phones, while student numbers have risen from about three thousand to 21 thousand. He has worked at the University of Otago for 54 years
He has become a well-known teacher at Otago University but has also become well-known in international statistics circles for his work in promoting international collaboration to improve statistics education and teaching in developing countries, including in Africa.
John Harraway’s career highlights the remarkable power of statistics to unravel mysteries in everything from foetal alcohol spectrum disorders, analysing trace element data in relation to food authentication to the secret lives of spinner dolphins in the Red Sea.
He plans to keep up with the squash club and Selwyn College where he held office for many years, he already has a role with Lions, he volunteers at Orokonui Ecosanctuary, has conferences to attend for years yet, and wants to help answer demand for the official statistics apps.

BRAND Dr. Fergus:

Secondary school was Kings High School. The last year at King’s was remarkable, of the twenty-seven pupils eight of us went on to complete PhDs, three became medical doctors, two ministers of religion, one Secretary of Labour and one Rear-admiral.

After completing my MSc in Physics at the University of Otago in 1963, I decided to continue in Physics at an Australian university and joined the School of Physics at the University of Sydney. I completed my PhD there in 1968. I stayed on at Sydney and currently I hold an Honorary Senior Lecturer position and enjoy the status of gentleman physicist!

The main themes of my research are in millimetre/submillimetre-wavelength electromagnetic radiation (now often labelled terahertz radiation) and plasma physics (the study of ionised gases which is relevant to topics ranging from nuclear fusion, the sun and stars, the ionosphere, fluorescent lights and plasma tvs).

The work for which I am best known is the development of a source of millimetre/submillimetre radiation known as a gyrotron. However, since the completion of this project, I have been looking at a variety of newly-recognised optical phenomena but in my wavelength range. Many of these phenomena are closely related to the direct observation of planets around other stars.

Other interests include playing with computers and family history. You would have to agree that access to the internet makes the present a great time to be investigating family history.

Dr C F R (Chris)   de HAMEL,    (At King’s high School 1963–67):

Dr C F R (Chris) de Hamel (1963–67) is Fellow Librarian at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University, and is the first full-time curator since the library was established in 1352! Estimated to be worth more than £1 billion the library houses the priceless Parker collection presented by a former Archbishop of Canterbury. It contains the 6th century Gospel Book brought to England in AD597 by St Augustine, and upon which archbishops of Canterbury take their oaths of office at their enthronements; about a quarter of all known Anglo-Saxon books; the oldest book in English; the Bury Bible; and other treasures to gladden the heart of one who was the manuscript expert with Sotheby’s for 25 years. Last year Phaidon Press published his The Book, A History of the Bible, which is the story of the Bible as an artefact, and not a theological treatise

Dr C M (Colin) HARRIS (At King’s High School 1973–76):

Dr C M (Colin) Harris (1973–76) is director of Environmental Research and Assessment (ERA), which he established in 1998 to assist international clients active in polar regions to meet their obligations through the provision of specialist environmental planning and policy advice, technical reports on environmental problems, map products and information resources. ERA maintains close links with the University of Cambridge, with the Scott Polar Research Institute, and with the British Antarctic Survey. Colin graduated from Otago University (B.A. Hons) and from the University of Western Ontario (M.A.) in recreational geography and worked for the Auckland Regional Authority. In 1993 he graduated PhD from Cambridge University, specialising in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and for the next five years he was an environmental specialist at the International Centre for Antarctic Information and Research (ICAIR), Christchurch. Colin was a visiting scholar at the Department of Geography, Cambridge University in 2001–02, and coordinated the Antarctic component of the environmental management strand for the M.Phil in Polar Studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute. He is a veteran of more than 15 years’ experience in Polar Regions, has furnished many reports, and is co-editor of the book Antarctica and Global Climatic Change, Belhaven Press, London (1991).

Howard Douglas McNaughton (attended Kings High School from 1958 to 1962)

Qualifcations
•M.A., Litt.D. (Otago)
•M.A., PhD (Canterbury)

In Memoriam

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Howard McNaughton at his home on Friday 28th March 2014. Howard was a deeply respected and long-serving member of the University of Canterbury English Department. He published widely in the field of modern and postcolonial drama, including writing the Drama sections in both editions of The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature. He helped pioneer Cultural Studies teaching and research at the University of Canterbury and was published in one of the disciplines leading journals, Social Semiotics. He was the New Zealand editor of the Encyclopedia of Post Colonial Literatures in English (Routledge, 2005), and his book The Reinvention of Everyday Life: Culture in the Twenty-first Century (2006), has been translated into Chinese. He will be greatly missed by his colleagues and his students.
Research

Howard McNaughton published widely in the field of modern and postcolonial drama. His New Zealand Drama was published by G.K. Hall in 1981, and his edition of the Collected Plays of James K. Baxter by Oxford in the following year. He has written the Drama section in both editions of The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature. He became increasingly involved in the developing field of Cultural Studies and was recently published in Social Semiotics and Theatre Research International. Howard was New Zealand editor of the Encyclopedia of Post Colonial Literatures in English (Routledge, 2005). His latest books were Figuring the Pacific(2005) and The Reinvention of Everyday Life: Culture in the Twenty-first Century (2006), which appeared in a Chinese edition in 2009.

Tony was a School Prefect, he played in the First Cricket XI, he was awarded a School Blue for cricket, he won Special Prizes in Classical Studies and Geography and an award for Services to School Cricket

Tony is a New Zealand historian at the University of Otago, Dunedin. After completing his schooling at King’s High School, Dunedin, he graduated BA(Hons) at the University of Otago and obtained a PhD at the University of Cambridge. He lectured at the National University of Ireland in Galway from Jul 1998 – Jun 2000, then he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois from Aug 2000 to Jun 2002. He lectured back in NZ at the University of Otago from Jul 2002 to Dec 2004 and then as a Senior Lecturer from Jan 2005 to Dec 2007. After that he became an Associate Professor from Dec 2007 to Dec 2008 at Washington University in St. Louis. He returned to the University of Otago’s Dunedin campus to build his career. Firstly, as Associate Professor from Jan 2009 to Jan 2011, then as Professor from Feb 2011 to May 2015 (Head of Department, History and Art History from 2012 to 2015), then as Vice-Chancellor, Humanities in a difficult period from Oct 2015 to Dec 2020 of academic. A time when Art History was disestablished, a time when redundancies and other academics were being asked to take early retirement. From January 2021 Tony leads the Division of External Engagement.  In this capacity he oversees the university’s alumni relations, liaising with secondary schools and recruitment of students, and the development and advertising of the university’s “brand”.  He is heavily involved in the promotion of the Universities new logo – another somewhat controversial situation.

Tony has established a significant reputation in New Zealand academic circles, including being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2012. In 2016 he was awarded the Humanities Aronui Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand for innovation in humanities research. He also edits, with Barbara Brookes, the New Zealand Journal of History.

He is recognised as a world-leading historian of the modern British empire.

In recent years much of his research has come to focus on the changing place of New Zealand within the British Empire. His current research primarily focuses on the development of colonial knowledge in southern New Zealand, a long-running project that was supported by a grant from the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand.