Obituary. Ron Crocombe MA (Victoria), PhD (ANU), Professor Emeritus (USP), Pacific Scholar

Copies of emails received, the obituary by USP Vice-Chancellor Rajesh Chandra, a general report and her account of the Auckland church service, at which sons Tata and Kevin spoke, by AUT journalist Pippa Brown, have been stored on the web by MediaFire. Click here to download. For further links, see below. See also PacificMediaWatch blog
NEW. And Pacific Media Centre blog.

For over 50 years Ron's name has been known and respected throughout the Pacific Islands. He first influenced me when, as a masterate student in 1960, I read his critique of NZ policies in the Cook Islands, where he had been a district officer. This writing and his book on land use in Rarotonga, that unravelled traditional and colonial influences, were ground-breaking for their time. We had not long started to question the munificence of colonial rule.

From the Cooks Ron went to PNG where he was director of the New Guinea Research Unit (1962-69) and then to the University of the South Pacific. There he founded the Institute of Pacific Studies to encourage Pacific writers. He wrote The New South Pacific, based on extension lectures: a mix of history, anthropology and Ron, that caused many to rethink their notions on the Pacific. There is much, much more, but I have no doubt that his most important contribution was in helping young Pacific Islanders, who up until then had been fed a diet of European education and values, gain confidence in themselves and their cultural heritage. Today his former students number among the Pacific's leaders and foremost academics. His later writings were among the first to draw attention to the increasing importance of Asia in the Pacific.

Ron never retired. For close to 20 years he commuted between the home he shared with wife Marjorie Tuainekore* in Rarotonga and his ongoing Pacific commitments in various parts of the world. Only a month ago he emailed me expressing dismay on what he took to be my pro-Fiji government stance. It was not the first time we had differed but I'm sorry that our last exchange was not more convivial. He was a man with whom you would occasionally differ, but never stop respecting. His knowledge of the Pacific was encyclopaedic, and his dedication to good Pacific outcomes unmatched. Ron died of a heart attack in a bus to Auckland airport, on the way home from Nuku'alofa, Tonga, where he'd been inducted as a Fellow in Futa Helu's 'Atenisi University. He was 79.

Kua hinga te totara, Haere te kaiako nui, Haere, Haere, Haere

* Marjorie was until recently Director of the Centre for Pacific Studies at Auckland University.

See also David Robie's and Bij Lal's obituaries in Cafe Pacific.