Alumni Meriti - New Plymouth Boys High School

Dr Sam Hazledine

Day Boy 1992-1996

Inducted Monday, 6th August 2018

Sam Hazledine is a well-known New Zealand entrepreneur, medical doctor, and advocate for physician well-being. He has made a significant impact on the healthcare industry and has gained recognition for his innovative approach to medical recruitment.

As the founder and CEO of MedRecruit, Sam Hazledine has transformed the way healthcare professionals find job opportunities. MedRecruit is a pioneering platform that connects medical practitioners with suitable positions, streamlining the recruitment process for both healthcare providers and job seekers. Under Hazledine's leadership, MedRecruit has grown to become a prominent player in the medical recruitment field.

Beyond his entrepreneurial success, Hazledine is a passionate advocate for the well-being of healthcare professionals. He has actively addressed the challenges and stresses faced by medical practitioners, emphasizing the importance of work-life balance and overall physician wellness. His advocacy has contributed to a broader awareness of these critical issues within the healthcare community.

In summary, Sam Hazledine is a respected figure in New Zealand, known for his entrepreneurial achievements in medical recruitment and his dedication to improving the lives of healthcare professionals. His work continues to have a positive impact on the healthcare industry and the well-being of medical practitioners.

Mr David Bremner

Day Boy 1989-1993

Mr Reuben Thorne

Boarder 1988-1992

Mr Graham Mourie

Day Boy 1969-1970

Sir Richard Faull

Day Boy 1963

Sir Roderick Deane

Boarder 1954-1957

Mr Michael Smither

Day Boy 1953-1957

Sir Colin Giltrap

Day Boy 1953-1954

Mr Albert Wendt

Boarder 1953-1957

Inducted Monday, 15th April 2013

Albert Wendt, a prominent Samoan poet and writer, born on October 27, 1939, in Samoa, now resides in New Zealand. His impactful contributions to Oceania's literary world include notable works like "Sons for the Return Home" (1973) and "Leaves of the Banyan Tree" (1979), with the former adapted into a film in 1979. Wendt's academic career spans multiple universities in Samoa, Fiji, Hawaii, and New Zealand. He held the role of professor of New Zealand literature at the University of Auckland from 1988 to 2008.

Wendt has earned numerous accolades, including two Commonwealth Writers Prizes, top honors at the New Zealand Book Awards, the 2012 Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction, and an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand in 2018. In 2013, he received the highest civilian honor in New Zealand, the Order of New Zealand, for his pivotal role in shaping Pacific literature in English.

Born in Apia, Western Samoa, in 1939, Wendt spent his early years in Samoa as one of nine siblings. His father worked as a plumber, and while he has German heritage on his father's side, Wendt considers himself entirely Samoan. He received a scholarship in 1952 to attend New Plymouth Boys' High School in New Zealand, where he graduated in 1957. During his schooling, he had some of his poems and a short story published in the school's annual magazine.

After completing a teaching diploma at Ardmore Teachers' College in 1959, Wendt pursued further education at Victoria University of Wellington, where he earned a Master of Arts in History in 1964. His Master's thesis focused on Samoa's independence movement in the early 1900s. During this period, he began publishing his work in various literary magazines.

From 1965 to 1987, Wendt returned to Samoa and served as the headmaster of Samoa College. During this time, he continued to contribute poems and short stories to New Zealand publications and also wrote two plays. In 1972, "Comes the Revolution" was performed at the South Pacific Arts Festival, and "The Contract" was performed at the School's Drama Festival in Apia. Although he initially began working on the epic novel "Leaves of the Banyan Tree," he completed and published "Sons for the Return Home" in 1973. This novel described the experiences of a young Samoan man in New Zealand and was adapted into a feature film in 1979.

In 1974, Wendt became a senior lecturer at the University of the South Pacific, where he published numerous articles in the literary journal Mana and edited collections of poems from various Pacific regions. He also released a collection of short stories titled "Flying Fox in a Freedom Tree" in 1974, as well as his first poetry collection, "Inside Us the Dead: Poems 1961 to 1974," in 1976. In 1977, he published a novella called "Pouliuli."

Wendt's magnum opus, the family saga "Leaves of the Banyan Tree," won first place at the 1980 Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Awards. He became a professor of Pacific literature at the University of the South Pacific from 1982 to 1987.

In 1988, Albert Wendt made history by becoming the first Pacific Islander to be appointed as a professor of New Zealand literature at the University of Auckland. He continued to make significant contributions to Pacific literature, editing important anthologies of Pacific writing and publishing works like "The Adventures of Vela" and "Breaking Connections."

Albert Wendt has played a pivotal role in postcolonial literature, shaping a Pacific literature in English and contributing to its evolution from oral to written form. His works have been widely published and translated into various languages, including French, Chinese, German, Dutch, and Japanese. He has received numerous accolades for his contributions to literature and culture and remains an unparalleled figure in the Pacific.

Wendt married Jenny Whyte as a young teacher, and they had two daughters and a son. His daughter Mele Wendt was honored as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to governance. After his marriage ended in the early 1990s, he has been in a relationship with his partner, Reina Whaitiri. Albert Wendt has familial connections with other notable figures, including his cousin, actor Nathaniel Lees, and his niece, writer Lani Wendt Young.

Sir John Graham

Day Boy 1948-1952

Sir Jim Graham

At School 1947-1951

Sir Ewan Jamieson

At School 1945-1948

Sir Neil Waters

At School 1944-1948

Sir David Levene

Day Boy 1943-1946

Sir Graeme Douglas

Day Boy 1942-1946

Sir Terry McLean

At School 1928-1930

Mr Geoffrey Roberts

At School 1919-1921

Sir Ronald Syme

At School 1918-1920

Sir Ronald Sinclair

At School 1916-1918

Sir Harry Barker

At School 1915-1917

Sir Russell Matthews

At School 1909-1911

Born in New Plymouth on 19 July 1896, Russell Matthews was the 10th and youngest child of Grace Marshall and her husband, Robert James Matthews, a banker. He was raised in an environment in which business and entrepreneurial skills were admired and encouraged. Educated at New Plymouth Boys' High School, he began his working life as an assistant engineer for the New Plymouth Borough Council.

In 1913 Matthews gained the council's permission to lay a new surface on Currie Street, New Plymouth. He researched the use of bitumen sealing, devised a heating system and spray unit, then mounted them on a horse-drawn wagon, fitted with special pins to ensure quick release should it catch fire. With bitumen imported from California, he began sealing the road. However, he was not familiar with the required heat and the bitumen came out 'looking like worms' rather than as a liquid spray. This, one of the earliest stretches of tar-sealing in New Zealand, received approximately three times the required bitumen and lasted more than 15 years.

Initially turned down for service during the First World War, Matthews was accepted in 1917 and served overseas for 10 months. He was in England when the war ended, and stayed for three years to study road construction at a London polytechnic. Arriving back in New Zealand in 1922, he met Henry Isherwood and Bertie Bellam, who were laying bitumen roads in Auckland. After working for them for a short time, Matthews became a partner and then managing director of Isherwood Bellam and Company, which was soon the country's largest roading firm.

On 7 March 1932, in New Plymouth, Russell Matthews married Elizabeth Mary Brodie. They purchased eight acres of undeveloped land along the Waiwhakaiho River, on the outskirts of the town, where they lived in a corrugated-iron shed for 18 months while their new Tudor-style home, designed by James Chapman-Taylor, was being built. Later they were to raise a family of two sons and two daughters.

In 1936 Matthews and a partner formed their own roading company, Matthews and Kirkby Limited. Six years later he began operating on his own account, under the name Russell Matthews and Company. This firm grew to become New Zealand's largest roading contractor, sealing more than 1,800 miles of road from Whangarei to Invercargill. From 1959 it concentrated on bitumen supplies. In addition to managing his own business, Matthews was a founding director of the New Plymouth chemical company Ivon Watkins Limited, serving on its board from 1944 to 1962. Over the following years he was director of a wide range of roading and engineering companies, including Kaikariki Sand and Gravel, Fitzroy Engineering and Fitzroy Quarries.

Outside of business management and roading, Matthews had a lifelong interest in horticulture. Inspired by the stately gardens of England, in the early 1930s Russell and Mary set about creating an attractive garden, which they named Tupare (garland of flowers). It became renowned for its specimen trees and was regularly opened to the public, the proceeds being distributed to charity.

As Matthews's passion for horticulture grew, he became a fellow of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture and a member of the New Zealand Rhododendron Association. A founding member of the Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust in 1951, he was one of the driving forces in the development of its unique gardens on Carrington Road, near New Plymouth, where a wide range of rhododendrons flourish in a native bush setting. Besides being a benefactor, and patron of the trust from 1973 to 1987, Russell and his family spent most weekends at Pukeiti, working on the gardens. He also travelled the country showing films of rhododendrons, advertising and promoting Pukeiti, and expanding the trust's membership.

A resourceful, charismatic and generous man, Russell Matthews was single-minded and persuasive, qualities that did not always make him popular but which helped him to achieve success in a range of business and philanthropic pursuits. Rarely content with being a mere figurehead, he was a life member of the Outward Bound Trust of New Zealand, the Tatum Park Trust, the St John Ambulance Association and the New Zealand Society for the Intellectually Handicapped, and patron of the New Plymouth Repertory Society.

Matthews was made an OBE in 1971 for his services to industry, horticulture and philanthropy, and became a knight bachelor 11 years later. Tupare was purchased by the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust in 1984 and opened daily to the public. Russell Matthews died in New Plymouth on 25 November 1987, aged 91, survived by his wife and children.