Meet Dr Bill Tramposch, inveterate jogger, telephone box owner and new guardian of our historic buildings. An enthusiastic American, he has made a connection with New Zealand's treasures. ANNE GIBSON reports.
When Dr Bill Tramposch was 12, he watched, stunned, as part of his home town was demolished.
Even as a
kid growing up in Monroe, Connecticut, he was taken aback by the destruction of his picture-perfect village in the 1940s.
He never forgot it.
With its twin-spired churches, manicured town green and precious collection of houses from the Colonial, Federation and Victorian eras, Monroe was then as flawless and unspoiled as any New England town could be. An architectural encyclopaedia. Film-set perfect. Intact, too.
"But the town fathers decided it was time to build a new community centre, so they bowled half the town and put up a fake colonial-style hall instead," says Tramposch, aged 52, leaning across the boardroom table to make the point.
"Even though I was pretty much in another world at 12, it still hit home to me that this was very wrong."
With hands as wide as hams (immigrant grandad was a tinsmith, dad a horticulturist, mum a caterer), Tramposch is a rangy, relaxed man with intense eyes, a sense of humour that breaks through the academic references, a long, straight back, almost impossibly lush dark hair and a penchant for jogging long distances.
He did not move to New Zealand to become a crack downhill skier or a daring white-water rafter, but he loves to jog.
Almost daily, he pounds the pavements between his new house in the residential diplomatic enclave of Homewood Cres in Wellington's Karori, down through Thorndon and into the city to Antrim House on Boulcott St, national headquarters of the Historic Places Trust.
"Yup, it's 29 minutes down and 37 back."
What, he jogs up that hill again at night?
"Sure," he replies smiling in that charming, self-assured North American way.
Tramposch delights in the physical satisfaction of sweeping past the trolley buses and car-bound commuters, a wry grin on his wide face, as he heads down to the CBD to do the nation's historic work.
Four months ago, he was appointed chief executive of the Historic Places Trust after a special panel, headed by Dame Catherine Tizard, did a worldwide trawl to fill the post left by Elizabeth Kerr. She was followed by acting chief executive, Joris de Bres, on loan from DoC, where he is general manager of external relations.
When it comes to historic street cred, Tramposch has an impeccable pedigree.
For 10 years, he worked at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, America's most extensive single-site heritage conservation effort, incorporating 500 buildings and 70ha of the original 18th century capital of the Colony of Virginia.
While he was a director there in 1986, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to New Zealand and another in 1988.
That started something he just had to finish. The US would never feel like home again.
During his initial time here, he travelled extensively through New Zealand, exchanging views on museums and heritage conservation. The Tramposch family that came here then included a most reluctant teenage daughter, Emma, now aged 21, and Molly, now 16.
"Emma didn't like it at all initially," recalls Tramposch, but changed her mind after living here and returned within only a year to study anthropology at Victoria University. Tramposch's wife, Peggy, was manager of Old St Paul's in Wellington, sharing her husband's enthusiasm in matters historical.
The Fulbright Fellowships sparked Tramposch's love of the country and he identified strongly with the migrant culture: "The heritage of New Zealand is addictive, mesmerising to me, accessible and intrinsically bicultural."
So in 1995, he returned for a plum job. For more than four years, he was one of the senior managers who built and operated Te Papa. He was hired to oversee the Department of Museum Resources, and was responsible for the selection and care of the museum's collections, to develop a scholarship and education policy and to start a national service to the museums of New Zealand.
After Te Papa opened, he became director of visitor programmes and services, overseeing all the front-of-house operations during the first year, when Te Papa had 2.1 million visitors.
When he was appointed to the Historic Places Trust in April this year, he was vice-president for museums and collections at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities in Boston, Massachusetts. That organisation is remarkably similar to the trust here, with a budget far more than the trust's $5.4 million (75 per cent from the Government and most of the rest from the 27,000 members).
"New England Antiquities had twice the annual budget but did less than the Historic Places Trust," he says.
Tramposch has a first class honours degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a masters and doctoral degree from the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
He has lectured and travelled broadly, especially in his role as vice-chair of the International Council of Museums (United States branch). He is also a visiting fellow at Oxford University (Kellogg College).
In his first few months here, Tramposch has been travelling extensively, getting more familiar with the buildings the trust owns, its staff and members.
His greatest concern is the development of an action plan for the Kerikeri basin with its precious Old Stone Store and Kemp House, under threat from Kerikeri River floods and traffic vibrations.
Another priority is the crisis facing marae buildings. Some are literally falling to the ground, many others are in urgent need of conservation.
Further development of the trust's website is a priority, as is making the trust accessible and understandable to people.
Anecdotes and quotes from the American forefathers roll from him. One story concerns the tale of his grandfather - who emigrated to the US in 1913 from what was part of Austria and is now Slovenia - meeting his wife-to-be in Brooklyn. They were both from Gottchee, exactly the same area in Austria, yet they had met and fallen in love in New York.
Tramposch returned to Slovenia several years ago, holding the tattered photograph of a house, left to him by his grandfather. He matched the picture with his grandfather's original house.
"Suddenly, I experienced that remarkable feeling of connection. The facade I was looking at matched the photo in my hand. But when I knocked on the door, I was met by a very unwelcoming and suspicious tenant who clearly had more immediate concerns than sharing of family histories.
"In this case, the structure remained but the story of the structure - and what it might have told us about families and the tragedy of war - had moved on long ago."
Another more recent story is of his family's delight at buying an old New Zealand phone box during one of their many stays here. They proudly hauled it back to Boston, then did the return journey with it again to Wellington.
"It's even got graffiti in it and glows with the most astonishing profanities, etched in the glass, when the sun hits it at certain angles."
Did the unorthodox Tramposch household put the phone box outside?
"Oh no, it's in our lounge room, right in the middle."
What, connected? "Of course, it makes a great place for teenagers to talk for hours."
Tramposch hopes to stay in his new role until retirement and certainly plans to remain in New Zealand.
Historic Places Trust
Meet Dr Bill Tramposch, inveterate jogger, telephone box owner and new guardian of our historic buildings. An enthusiastic American, he has made a connection with New Zealand's treasures. ANNE GIBSON reports.
When Dr Bill Tramposch was 12, he watched, stunned, as part of his home town was demolished.
Even as a
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