In Profile - Sir Lloyd Geering

27/9/2009

As noted in the September newsletter, Otago Boys’ High School enjoyed high profile at the late-August Government House investiture of New Zealand Knighthoods with no fewer than four Old Boys kneeling before Governor-General Sir Anand Satayanand.

With the current National government reinstating titles, which were abolished between 2000 and 2008, recipients of the Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (PCNZM), Knight Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (GNZM), Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM) and the Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DCNZM) were given the option of taking up the titular designation of Sir or Dame.

Accepting the titles were internationally respected theologian Emeritus Professor Sir Lloyd George Geering (1931-35); visionary paediatrician Sir David Charles Mauger (1953-57) who performed the first bone marrow transplant in New Zealand; retired High Court judge Sir John William Hansen (1957-62); and the world’s best match racing yachtsman and former Olympic champion Sir Russell Coutts (1975-79).

Over the next few months we’ll profile each of our new Knight, starting with Sir Lloyd Geering, who is an Associate Fellow of the Foundation.

Sir Lloyd Geering

Sir Lloyd was born in Rangiora in 1918, educated at Otago Boys’ (where he was Dux in 1935 and awarded a Junior University Scholarship) and Otago University, and holds Honours degrees in Mathematics and Old Testament Studies.

Ordained as a Presbyterian minister, he served in Kurow, Dunedin and Wellington.

He held Chairs of Old Testament Studies at theological colleges in Brisbane and Dunedin before being appointed as the foundation Professor of Religious Studies at Victoria University of Wellington.

He was married to Nancy McKenzie (deceased 1949), to Elaine Parker (deceased 2001) and to Shirley White of Christchurch in 2004. He has three children, nine grandchildren (one deceased) and five great-grandchildren.

Since his retirement in 1984 he has continued to lecture widely throughout New Zealand and overseas. He was a Regular Columnist on religious topics: Auckland Star (16 years), New Zealand Listener (four years). He was awarded an Honorary DD by the University of Otago in 1976, a CBE in the New Year Honours in 1988, made a PCNZM in 2001, and admitted to the Order of New Zealand in 2007.

Sir Lloyd’s chief publications have been God in the New World, Resurrection: A Symbol of Hope, Faith's New Age , Tomorrow’s God, The World to Come, Christianity without God, Wrestling with God, which served as his auto-biography.