Massey University Professor Emeritus Bill Oliver, considered one of New Zealand’s most influential historians as well as a poet, has died in Wellington, aged 90.
His funeral is today, Friday 18th September…. 11:30am, Old Saint Pauls, Mulgrave Street, Wellington
Born in Feilding in 1925, he graduated with a Master of Arts from the University of New Zealand (at Victoria) in 1951 then a Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford in 1953. He lectured at Canterbury and Victoria from 1954-63 then became the foundation Professor of History at Massey for the next 20 years. At Massey he supervised and inspired a generation of significant academic historians such as Peter Gibbons, Tom Brooking, Charlotte Macdonald and Margaret Tennant.
He retired from Massey in 1983 and was appointed general editor of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, a role he held until 1990. Since 2007 the Massey University history programme has held a WH Oliver lecture in recognition of Professor Oliver’s contribution to the discipline. In 2013 the university established the WH Oliver Humanities Research Academy to promote and support Humanities research.
Note: blog post information extracted from Massey University’s press release.
The New Zealand Historical Association 