Frank Henry Corner CMG: 17 May 1920-27 August 2014.

• Author: Hensley, Gerald
• Position: Obituary

Frank Corner had the brightest mind of anyone I was privileged to know--bright in its energy and bright in its flashing speed. The outfall of ideas that streamed out when Frank was in full flow caused some to mutter nervously that he was too clever by half. I saw the maths differently, that he was one and a half times cleverer than the rest of us.

He had also the good fortune to be at the heart of New Zealand's foreign policy when it was being formed, when the shape was malleable and important things could be done, but then in many cases things could be done because Frank was there to do them. In the Department of External Affairs that Alister McIntosh was forming, it was Frank who inspired the young with the feeling that questions were there to be asked, ideas to be tried out. 'Do you want to get your hands dirty', he said to me when I had just joined and we started work on the future of Samoa.

Perhaps his third and greatest good fortune was his marriage to Lynette Robinson, a long and happy union which gave them their two lively daughters, Katy and Victoria, and two much-loved grandchildren, Michael and Anna Moore-Jones. Seventy years is an exceptionally long time for a marriage, especially in an age when as lives grow longer marriages seem to get shorter. The most impressive feature of their marriage, however, was not its longevity but its closeness. In an age when we like to stress our individual selves, Frank and Lyn were a team, and they were doubly formidable as a result.

His work in the foreign service was perhaps a lucky accident. The war prevented him from taking up a scholarship to study overseas and instead he joined the Air Department. The thought of Frank running the Air Department inspires awe, but this was merely Fate clearing her throat. Some months later in 1943 the sharp-eyed McIntosh brought him into the new Department of External Affairs. The role and the man were fused forever.

It was wartime, but even in the middle of the struggle both he and Mac understood that the familiar world of colonial empires would not survive the end of the war. He started work on the future of colonies and produced papers of great originality, arguing the then astonishing thought that countries with colonies should be accountable to the international community and should report regularly on their administration. When the United Nations Charter was drafted in 1943 New Zealand had done its homework on colonialism. Under the guidance of our...