Queen's Birthday Honours 2020
By Melissa Rodgers | Posted: Wednesday June 3, 2020
Congratulations to the following Old Boys' for being awarded a Queen's Birthday Honours.
Professor Ian Lambie - ONZM for services to clinical psychology
Prior to embarking on a degree in psychology, Ian worked as a comprehensive nurse in acute psychiatric and surgical nursing in Dunedin, Auckland and Sydney. Nursing taught him many practical and ‘coal face’ skills and provided a great foundation for his next career as a clinical psychologist.
Ian has an undergraduate degree in psychology from Otago University and trained in clinical psychology at the University of Auckland. Upon registration as a clinical psychologist he worked intensively with adolescents with harmful sexual behaviours and children with conduct problems for over 10 years, prior to joining the clinical psychology programme as a staff member. Much of this work involved outdoor wilderness therapy and family therapy.
Ian has over 30 years’ experience working as a clinical psychologist specialising in children and adolescents – "I suppose I thought it was where I could have the biggest impact on changing kids’ lives around and giving them a better future".
As both a clinical psychologist and academic, Ian has worked alongside a number of government departments including the New Zealand Fire Service, Police, Department of Corrections and Oranga Tamarki, as well as community groups, and his students have also helped these organisations with their projects, to ensure well-grounded, real-world research outputs.
Ian sits on a number of government committees and now works part-time at the university. Ian is also Chief Science Advisor for the Justice Sector (this role spans the Ministry of Justice, Police and Department of Corrections) and advises government on ways to improve the justice system for those whom it serves.
James R Tomlin - ONZM for services to art education
For more than four decades, Jim Tomlin has been at the forefront of art education in New Zealand.
That commitment has now been recognised with an ONZM for services to art education.
"I’m quite thrilled and shocked by this honour. "It’s a nice surprise at the end of a long career."
Mr Tomlin (79) was the head of the Dunedin School of Art for 24 years, until 2000. During his time in the role, he led change in how the subject of art was perceived, recognised and taught in New Zealand.
At the time, diplomas were the only tertiary art qualifications that were offered, but his efforts and advocacy led to the creation of the first degrees and postgraduate qualifications in the field of fine art.
He has presented academic art education papers at dozens of conferences throughout Australia and New Zealand, and has had his works exhibited in almost 40 galleries.
For nearly 10 years, he was a member of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority’s Visual and Performing Arts Strategic Planning Committee, the University Art Syllabus Revision Committee, and the Unesco International Association of Art.
Mr Tomlin is also a trustee of the Beeby Foundation for Visual Arts Education and is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London.
Dr Brian L Turner - ONZM for services to literature and poetry
Words are Brian Turner’s specialty and there is probably no better place to put pen to paper than against the rugged backdrop of Central Otago.
His works range from poetry, non-fiction books, television scripts, articles and columns, and he is no stranger to accolades, having been recognised with some of New Zealand’s top awards in literature over the past 40 years.
He believed this honour trumped all of them. "I’m surprised and it’s humbling, it’s not something I would’ve conceived of receiving.
"But being a writer is a condition and you can’t do a lot about it."
Dr Turner has written biographies on Sir Colin Meads, Anton Oliver, Glenn Turner, and Josh Kronfeld.
He has published thirteen collections of poetry, most recently Selected Poems in 2019.
His collections Beyond and Just This won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry in 1993 and 2010 respectively.
He was a founding member and subsequently chairman of the Central Otago Environmental Society. His best-selling books Into the Wider World (2009) and Elemental (2012) focus on New Zealand’s natural environment.
He received the University of Otago Robert Burns Fellowship in 1984 and was Te Mata Estate New Zealand Poet Laureate from 2003 to 2005.
His numerous awards also include the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry in 2009, the Lauris Edmond Memorial Award for Poetry 2009, the JC Reid Memorial Prize in 1985, and the Commonwealth Poetry Prize 1979.
Dr Turner was awarded a University of Otago honorary doctorate in 2011.
John M Buchanan - MNZM for services to Music
Central Otago conductor and musician John Buchanan is "quite astounded" and humbled by his inclusion in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.
"It’s not something that you can do for yourself. It’s something that other people do for you.
"That’s what is so humbling — that people put all that energy into collecting the information and writing letters."
The 74-year-old, who now lives in Dunedin, conducted the Wanaka Singers (1995-2003), the Central Otago Regional Orchestra (1999-2008), established and conducted the Central Otago Regional Choir (2004-2018), and directed shows for the Wanaka community and the Alexandra Musical Society.
Mr Buchanan also conducted the Roxburgh Pioneer Energy Brass Band, winning New Zealand Championship awards in 2017 and 2018.
He was also musical director of Dunstan High School’s Dunstanza choir from 2006.
Under his direction, the choir won the Maori Performance Award at the 2017 Big Sing Finale and a Silver Commendation at the International Music Festival in Sydney, in 2018.
He is treasurer of the New Zealand Choral Federation Otago Branch, and in 2019 he spearheaded the federation’s Cadenza initiative, which widened inclusion of school choirs competing in a national choral competition.
Congratulations.
Thank you to the Otago Daily Times for use of their articles.
