George Darvel Hill (16 June 1938 – 17 July 2017) was a New Zealand agronomist, naval reservist, justice of the peace and unionist.

Early life and education

Born in

Wallsend Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne. History Roman Wallsend In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of Segedunum. This fo ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, England, on 16 June 1938, Hill was the son of a master mariner. He was educated at

Christ Church Grammar School , motto_translation = God is our leader, learning is our light , established = , founder = William Joseph McClemans , type = Independent single-sex early learning, primary, and secondary day and boarding school , gender = Boys , deno ...

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, from 1949 to 1956, and later completed a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in agriculture in at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

in 1969. The title of his master's thesis was ''Effect of environment on the growth of Leucaena leucocephala''.

Academic career

Hill spent four years from 1965 as an agricultural researcher at Bubia, near

Lae Lae () is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River and at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is the main land transport corridor between the Highl ...

, in Papua New Guinea. He was appointed to an academic position at Lincoln University, near

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, New Zealand, in October 1972. He rose to become an associate professor, and served as head of the Agronomy Department at Lincoln from 1994. After 40 years as a teaching and research agronomist with a particular interest in the agronomy of

lupins ''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur ...

, Hill retired in 2012. Hill served a committee member of the Association of University Staff (AUS) and later the

Tertiary Education Union The New Zealand Tertiary Education Union (in Māori: Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa) is the main trade union in the New Zealand tertiary education sector, and represents the interests of more than 10,000 workers employed within the sector across ...

for 28 years, rising to national president and earning a meritorious service award. He was also a long-serving member of the council of the Agronomy Society of New Zealand, and was appointed a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

in 1984.

Naval service

Following his secondary education, Hill joined the

Royal Australian Naval Reserve The Royal Australian Naval Reserve (RANR) is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Australian Navy in Australia. The current Royal Australian Naval Reserve was formed in June 1973 by merging the former RANR (Seagoing) and the Royal Australian ...

in November 1956. He was active in the naval reserves in Australia and New Zealand for more than 30 years, becoming the first reservist raised to the rank of captain in 25 years. In 1975 he was appointed honorary '' aide-de-camp'' to the New Zealand

governor-general Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

, Sir

Denis Blundell Sir Edward Denis Blundell, (29 May 1907 – 24 September 1984) was a New Zealand lawyer, cricketer and diplomat who served as the 12th Governor-General of New Zealand from 1972 to 1977. Early life and family Denis Blundell was born in W ...

Death

Hill died in Christchurch on 17 July 2017.

Selected works

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References

1938 births 2017 deaths People from Wallsend English emigrants to Australia People educated at Christ Church Grammar School University of Western Australia alumni English emigrants to New Zealand Lincoln University (New Zealand) faculty New Zealand justices of the peace New Zealand trade unionists New Zealand agronomists {{NewZealand-academic-bio-stub