Obituary: Robert Chapman

Political scientist. Died aged 81.



Robert (Bob) McDonald Chapman was a political scientist, historian and emeritus professor.

The subject of his thesis for his MA degree was the 1928 general election in New Zealand. This early introduction to psephology, the statistical study of elections and trends in voting, remained a lifelong passion.

Well before the advent of computers, Chapman was meticulously compiling a file of electoral results, polling place by polling place.

This huge knowledge of voting patterns in New Zealand made him the ideal person to dissect results as they arrived when television coverage of New Zealand elections started in 1966.

A Herald review of that first programme commented: "Professor R.M. Chapman confounded what had been said in this column by making a strikingly accurate prediction of the election result. Just 30 minutes after the coverage began he was forecasting a large number of Social Credit protest votes."

In fact, Vern Cracknell won Social Credit's first-ever parliamentary seat, for Hobson, in that election.

The television election coverage was so successful, despite some viewers complaining of the loss of programmes such as Gunsmoke and The Man from UNCLE, that it has continued, with Chapman participating again in 1969 and 1972.

Chapman was appointed to the History Department of Auckland University in 1948, where he taught a range of courses. At the same time, he was actively pursuing an interest in New Zealand history as an expression of the nation's social development.

He was one of a pioneer group of teachers at the university - among them historian Sir Keith Sinclair and poet Allen Curnow - who, in the 1960s, proudly asserted that New Zealand had its own history, its own politics, its own literature, which was every bit as important as that of Britain.

Chapman was appointed to the foundation chair of Political Studies at Auckland University in 1963. But he not only taught New Zealand politics, he also couldn't resist dabbling in it, being teacher and backroom confidant to many Labour politicians.

The most prominent is one-time staff member and now Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Following her victory in 1999, Chapman described her as "a beautifully tempered samurai sword, very flexible, a little soft where it ought to be, with a very hard edge".

He put in place the teaching of political science while continuing to encourage postgraduate students in researching New Zealand politics.

To assist them, Chapman and his wife, Noeline, started an archive of recorded news and current events spanning 30 years from the mid-60s, and comprising 30,000 items.

These now reside in the National Film Archive as the Chapman Collection.

His interest and experience in broadcasting led to his appointment in 1973 as a member of a ministerial committee to restructure broadcasting.

In 1984 he was appointed chairman of the Royal Commission on Broadcasting.

The commission, which included Judge Mick Brown, had 18 months to investigate all aspects of broadcasting in New Zealand, including licences and fees, private television and radio station warrants, and cultural representation in programmes.

The commission's report, released in 1986, recommended stiff increases in licence fees, an unpopular measure, and a reduction of violence in television programmes.

Bob Chapman was born in Takapuna in 1922, and attended Auckland Grammar School before enrolling at teachers' training college and Auckland University College, where he received awards for scholarship. He married Noeline Thompson in 1948, and was made a CMG (Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George) in 1987.

Professor Robert Chapman is survived by his wife, three sons, and five grandchildren. His funeral service will be held at the Maclaurin Chapel, University of Auckland, Princes St, next Saturday at noon.

- Peter Aimer, with Phoebe Falconer and Brian Rudman