Bruce Edward Wallace: 1947-2007.

• Author: Bunch, Bob
• Position: OBITUARY - Obituary

It is with sadness that we report the death of Bruce Wallace, former editor of the New Zealand International Review.

Bruce was a consistently strong supporter of the NZIIA and its flagship journal, the New Zealand International Review. He was closely involved with the NZIR in the five years following its launching in 1975. At the time Bruce was the Foreign Affairs Editor for South Pacific Television. He proved an invaluable member of the NZIR team both as a keen observer of contemporary events and as someone who utilised his excellent journalistic contacts in New Zealand and abroad.

Bruce was managing editor in 1979-80. In his first issue, January/February 1979, he introduced the NZIR's first editorial, setting out his vision of making the publication more of a magazine than a journal, with articles getting behind the stories in the newspapers so that the NZIR was even better value for money. Throughout his stint at the helm, each issue of the NZIR had a special theme with several related articles and/or interviews. These features focused on New Zealand's relationships with the United Kingdom, China and Africa, the making of New Zealand's foreign policy, aid in the post-colonial world and energy. Each issue also included a contribution from Bruce, either in the form of an interview or an article and he brought in journalists such as Richard Harmon, Spiro Zavos and Derek Round as NZIR contributors. The January/February 1980 issue, his last as managing editor, contained a readership survey form as Bruce was...