Bruce MacDonald Brown QSO: 24 January 1930-2 October 2016.
Author | McGibbon, Ian |
Position | OBITUARY - Obituary |
The New Zealand Institute of International Affairs lost one of its most illustrious members with the passing of Bruce Brown on 2 October. Having been variously director (twice), vice president, honorary vice president, chair of the research committee, member of the Standing Committee, member of the New Zealand International Review committee and finally life member, he gave unequalled service to the institute over six decades.
Bruce's contribution to the NZIIA was, however, just one facet in his impressive career. Born in Wellington but brought up in New Plymouth, he attended New Plymouth Boy's High School before entering Wellingtons Victoria University College in 1949. Apart from proving an able student--he graduated with an MA (Hons) degree in 1955--he excelled in debating. He won the Plunket Medal for Oratory in 1954 and toured Australia with a New Zealand Universities debating team in the same year. He was a member of the Socialist Club and also active in sports, earning a university blue for boxing. Throughout his life Bruce would take an active interest in sport, especially rugby. Late in his university studies, Bruce married Irene Raynor; they would have three children.
Bruce majored in history, and would retain his love of the subject. Indeed, he became an accomplished historian in his own right. His first book, The Rise of New Zealand Labour 1916-40 (1962), based on his masters' thesis, remains the standard work on the early Labour Party more than half a century later. He would produce valuable historical works later in life on New Zealand trade policy and political history, as well as contributing entries to both the Encyclopedia of New Zealand and the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.
Bruce aspired to a political career. 'I even nurtured the thought that I might become Prime Minister', he would write in 2000. His sister was secretary-typist for Labour politician Walter Nash, the Leader of the Opposition, and this connection led to his becoming a messenger on Nash's staff in 1952 (in reality an assistant private secretary). To Bruce, who later described his politics at this time as 'Bevanite Labour', perhaps the main advantage of the position was the useful access it gave him to Parliaments library resources--as well as some income as a fulltime student. But he also recognised that the contacts would help him launch a political career.
With his foot in the door, Bruce was well-placed to become Nash's private secretary when the position became vacant in December 1954. He recalled later that he...
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