Obituary: Sir Don Llewellyn

By ARNOLD PICKMERE

Scientist, university administrator. Died aged 84.

Donald Rees Llewellyn was the founding vice-chancellor of Waikato University in 1964.

By the time he was awarded his knighthood in 1998, the "father" of the National Fieldays at Mystery Creek, was so much part of the Waikato it seemed to many people that he had been there for ever.

The then Mayor of Hamilton Russ Rimmington called him one of the most remarkable men in the Waikato and a "great Hamiltonian".

Certainly few others can have embraced matters of town, gown and country so wholeheartedly.

He came to the Waikato eagerly anticipating the challenge of establishing a new university, with an already considerable scientific and academic background.

A first class honours degree in chemistry at the University of Birmingham was followed by studies and lecturing at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, North Wales and at University College, London.

During World War II he took part in work on the atomic energy project in Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, and at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.

He reached New Zealand in 1957 with his wife, Ruth, and two children to become a professor of chemistry at the then Auckland University College.

He thought the city's wooden buildings had an impermanent air. Few roads were sealed and licensed restaurants were "as hard to find as hen's teeth".

In Auckland he helped design New Zealand's first nuclear physics laboratory to teach radio chemistry and the use of isotopes.

In the Waikato from 1964 the first task of his 20-year tenure was a worldwide search for staff and then attracting students as fast as possible to build up the university.

There was also a campaign for halls of residence. He was acutely aware of the importance of relationships between the university, other Waikato educational and research establishments such as Ruakura and business.

Brought up in a town in rural Gloucester, he soon acquired a small block near Hamilton and was thrust into rural life, initially through his daughter's membership of the Cambridge Pony Club.

Such things led to an invitation to chair an inaugural meeting to raise the idea of an agricultural show in the Waikato.

He accepted "just for one meeting" to raise the profile of the university, or as he put it years later: "The community thought we were a load of eggheads who did nothing but organise a bunch of nasty students. I had to put them right."

A first town and country festival opened at the Te Rapa Racecourse in June 1969.

Llewellyn recalled the facilities were made available free. It was so popular that 10,000 people overwhelmed the gatekeepers and were jumping the fences to get in.

The best thing the new organisation did was to buy about 61ha (with a 100 per cent bank loan) at Mystery Creek, just out of Hamilton.

Things never looked back, although in the first year Llewellyn remembered working bees digging trenches, fencing, spraying ragwort and hammering in marker pegs for the display sites.

And he recalled the Queen visiting the show in 1970 and pausing to talk to one of the men in the fencing competition. "Sorry, Ma'am, I can't stop to talk - there's money in this," said the fencer politely.

The Queen understood and walked away.

Professor Bryan Gould, vice-chancellor of the University of Waikato, described Sir Don Llewellyn as a true friend of the university "and a towering figure in its history and development".

"If anyone could claim to be uniquely important in the establishment and success of the university it was Don."

Jack Parle, present president of the NZ National Fieldays Society, said Llewellyn had a very deep interest in the Fieldays.

"He always had things to say which were right to the point."

Mr Parle said the Llewellyn Lounge at Mystery Creek was named in his honour "because that is what he did there. He used to lounge in that room and yarn with his mates."

Sir Donald is survived by his two children, Robert and Joan.