Malcolm Murchie was born in Wicksteed St, Whanganui. His father, Donald Murchie, was an accountant with Treadwell Gordon. His mother, Molly, was an active gardener and a first cousin of Katherine Mansfield.
Malcolm was the eldest of five children. He had three sisters and one brother. He went to Keith
St, Queen's Park and Wanganui Intermediate schools. He then attended Wanganui Technical College, where he was head prefect. He excelled academically and played a lot of sport, especially cricket.
Malcolm Murchie spent only patches of his life in his home town of Whanganui, but will be well remembered here.
His greatest achievements were in mid-life, as founding principal of the very successful Waiariki Institute of Technology. Under his leadership it became New Zealand's fastest-growing tertiary institution outside a main centre. Its library is named after him.
He had a long and successful career in education. But he was extremely active in other areas as well - in organic gardening, sport and fitness, healthy eating, art and culture, heritage, politics and beautification.
On a personal level he's remembered for his honesty and integrity, his quick intellect, his wide knowledge and his generosity.
He attended Teachers College in Christchurch. There he met fellow trainee teacher Erihapeti (Betty) Rehu. Following graduation he was posted to a school in Whanganui and she to a school at Ratana Pa. He used to bike out to see her at weekends.
They married in 1946, and it was to be a long and fruitful relationship which produced 10 children. Tragically their oldest son, Roy, drowned in 1985.
"They worked together wonderfully to progress the well-being of Māori and society as a whole," son Rehu said.
Their teaching careers soon moved them south to Wellington, Timaru, Palmerston, and Dunedin. In Dunedin Mr Murchie was head of the Otago Polytechnic's arts department for five years, and its acting deputy principal for two years. He and Erihapeti also mentored numerous Maori students enrolled at both the polytechnic and Otago University.
In the 1970s he moved back to Wellington, and worked for the Education Ministry as senior tertiary advisory officer. He was part of the founding group for the new Waiariki Polytechnic, in Rotorua. When it began, in 1978, he was its founding principal. He was principal from 1978 to 1990 when he retired.
He gave the place a bicultural slant and started the first Māori journalism course in New Zealand. He encouraged Maori to enrol in all courses provided by the polytechnic. He established satellite facilities in nearby towns, and tailored courses to meet local needs - tourism and hospitality, for example, supplying the visitor industry in Rotorua and Taupo. Mr Murchie was a fluent Te Reo Māori speaker. He ran numerous marathons and became semi-vegetarian while living in Rotorua.
"He would go off to the polytechnic with two carrots and a handful of walnuts for lunch."
When Mr Murchie retired in 1990 he and his wife returned to Whanganui.
"They came back to live here because he always reckoned Whanganui was the best place to be," his sister, Catherine Baeyertz, said.
In retirement Mr Murchie was able to pursue his multitude of interests. These included membership of New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Friend of the Whanganui River, Friends of the Wellington Botanic Gardens, and the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary Trust. He also enjoyed tramping in national and forest parks. He was an active member of Soil and Health.
His children remember being the only ones with brown bread in their school lunches. He told his children: "If it does not come straight from the land or sea it's not worth eating."
"A lot of what he believed in and the way he lived was way ahead of the times."
He was involved in art, heritage and theatre, and read the philosophers. He was an active member of the Social Credit Party. He and his wife were also involved in environmental beautification and he chaired the Wanganui Beautification Society.
He was a life member of both Bason Botanic Gardens Trust and the Whanganui Regional Museum, and chaired the museum's board of trustees from 1995-97.
Son Rehu says his dad had an inexhaustible collection of quotes, from the classics through to modern day authors, and a virtually photographic memory.
"We would ask him about things that happened when we were young, and he would be able to tell us the date and describe the day."
He was a generous father who worked hard to provide for his children. He was a man of high ethical and moral values.
"Even when he was teaching he would do milk runs and paper runs, working up to three jobs at a time."
In 1997 Erihapeti Rehu Murchie died. Mr Murchie moved to Wellington, then to Otaki Gorge, where he had an organic orchard. In his eighties it became too big for him, and he spent his last seven years living in Otaki town.
In keeping with his beliefs, Mr Murchie had an organic burial at Arowhenua Pa, Erihapeti's place of origin.
"Dad was wrapped in a used cotton sheet. We weren't allowed to buy him a new one. There was no coffin, and no embalming."
That sounds difficult, but it wasn't.
"He managed the five days from his passing in Otaki to his burial in Arowhenua just as he managed everything else - remarkably," Rehu said.
