William Fatianga Marsters (26 November, 1923 – 26 August, 2004) was the first president of the

Cook Islands Christian Church The Cook Islands Christian Church (CICC) is the largest religious denomination in the Cook Islands. It belongs to the Reformed family of churches. The CICC is a Christian Congregationalist church and has approximately 18,000 members,Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

. Marsters was born on

Palmerston Island Palmerston Island is a coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean about northwest of Rarotonga. James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartogr ...

. He is one of the 134 grandchildren of

William Marsters William Marsters (born Richard Masters) (6 November 1831 – 22 May 1899) was an English adventurer from Walcote, Leicestershire who settled on Palmerston Island in the Cook Islands on 8 July 1863, with his Polynesian wife and two Polynesi ...

, the English explorer who settled on the then-uninhabited Palmerston in 1863 with his three Polynesian wives.

Bill Marsters William Fatianga Marsters (26 November, 1923 – 26 August, 2004) was the first president of the Cook Islands Christian Church (CICC), the largest religious denomination in the Cook Islands. Marsters was born on Palmerston Island. He is one of t ...

was often referred to as "Reverend Bill" in order to distinguish him from the many other Marsters family members named after William Marsters. Bill Marsters became the president of the CICC in 1968, when it was granted autonomy by an Act of the

Parliament of the Cook Islands The Parliament of the Cook Islands ( rar, Pāremeta te Kuku Airani) is the legislature of the Cook Islands. Originally established under New Zealand’s United Nations mandate it became the national legislature on independence in 1965. The Par ...

. He was a popular figure throughout the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

and administered the church from Rarotonga. Marsters was forced to resign from the church presidency in the late 1970s when he became involved in a scandal involving missing church funds. After his resignation, he returned to live in Palmerston Island, where he acted as the CICC pastor and the de facto head of the small island community of Marsters descendants. Marsters' actions as head of the CICC and his subsequent behaviour on Palmerston Island were the subject of severe criticism in a 1994 book in which an American journalist visited Palmerston Island and reported on conversations he had had with many of the residents of the island.Michael Krieger (1994) ''Conversations with the Cannibals: The End of the Old Pacific'' (Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, ) pp. 12–62. Marsters and his wife were the parents of 12 children. Marsters died in 2004 in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marsters, Bill 1923 births 2004 deaths Cook Island Congregationalists Cook Island religious leaders People from Palmerston Island Religious scandals Marsters family of the Cook Islands Cook Island people of British descent Religious leaders in the Cook Islands