Arthur Francis Small (26 February 1946 – 5 March 2021) was a New Zealand engineer and scouting leader. He served as the national president of

Scouting New Zealand Scouts Aotearoa, known internationally as Scouts Aotearoa New Zealand is a trading name of The Scout Association of New Zealand, the national Scouting association in New Zealand and an affiliate of the World Organization of the Scout Movement ...

, as well as the vice-chairman of the

Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Committee The Asia-Pacific Scout Region is the divisional office of the World Scout Bureau of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, headquartered in Makati, Philippines, with satellite offices in Australia and Japan. The Asia-Pacific Region servi ...

. Small was born in 1946, He studied civil engineering at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

, completing a Master of Engineering degree in 1969, and a PhD in 1971. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Arved Raudkivi, was titled ''Hydroelastic excitation of cylinders''. Joining the

New Zealand Railways Department The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR (New Zealand Government Railways) and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway ...

in 1964, Small rose to become managing director of New Zealand Rail (in 1972) and its successor,

Tranz Rail Tranz Rail, formally Tranz Rail Holdings Limited (New Zealand Rail Limited until 1995), was the main Rail transport in New Zealand, rail operator in New Zealand from 1991 until it was purchased by Toll Holdings in 2003. History The New Zealand ...

. He retired from Tranz Rail in 2000 and was replaced, as managing director, by Michael Beard in May of that year. Small was then vice-chairman for some time. For his services to the transport industry and the community, he was appointed a

Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of New Zealand, Queen of New Zealand, "for those ...

in the

2000 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various or ...

. In 1999, Small was appointed by the National Government as one of three people on the high-profile

INCIS INCIS was the name of the Integrated National Crime Information System designed to provide information to the New Zealand Police in the 1990s, but which was abandoned in 1999. Although the project was abandoned parts of its hardware and software ...

inquiry into the failed computer system that had been ordered by

New Zealand Police The New Zealand Police ( mi, Ngā Pirihimana o Aotearoa) is the national police service and principal law enforcement agency of New Zealand, responsible for preventing crime, enhancing public safety, bringing offenders to justice, and maintai ...

in the 1990s. Early in 2000 after a change to the Labour Government, the other two members were dispensed with and Small conducted the enquiry by himself. Small's report on INCIS was published in November 2000. Small was a Distinguished Fellow of the

Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Engineering New Zealand Te Ao Rangahau (ENZ; previously the New Zealand Institution of Engineers – NZIE and then Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand – IPENZ) is a not-for-profit professional body that promotes the integrity a ...

(IPENZ) and was the group's president in 1996–97. In 2013, he received the individual award from the Railway Technical Society of Australasia for outstanding service to New Zealand's rail industry. In 2015, he funded the Francis Small Scholarship at the University of Auckland, available to civil, electrical, mechanical or chemical engineering students. In 1999, Small was awarded the 278th

Bronze Wolf The Bronze Wolf Award is bestowed by the World Scout Committee (WSC) to acknowledge "outstanding service by an individual to the World Scout Movement". It is the highest honor that can be given a volunteer Scout leader in the world and it is the ...

, the only distinction of the

World Organization of the Scout Movement The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM ) is the largest international Scouting organization. WOSM has 173 members. These members are recognized national Scout organizations, which collectively have around 43 million participants. WOS ...

, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world scouting. Small died in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

on 5 March 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Small, Francis 1946 births 2021 deaths University of Auckland alumni Scouting and Guiding in New Zealand Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit Recipients of the Bronze Wolf Award New Zealand civil engineers New Zealand people in rail transport 20th-century New Zealand engineers People from Palmerston North