17 December 1993 Obituary - Dr John Aldred Hayward

A nationally recognised resource management pioneer and Lincoln University staff member of 30 years, Dr John Aldred Hayward, died in Christchurch on 9 December aged 55.

A former Director of the Lincoln-based Centre for Resource Management, past member of the New Zealand Planning Council and ex-Chairman of the Environmental Council, Dr Hayward was brought up in Dunedin where his father Jock Hayward was Registrar of Otago University.

After attending Otago Boys' High School, John Hayward started tertiary study at Otago University then moved on to Lincoln College where he completed a Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree.

On graduation he became Soil Conservator with the Otago Catchment Board and was based in Alexandra for three and a half years. During that time he was responsible for preparing and servicing farm and run plans within the district and for preparing subsidy assistance for all types of soil conservation activities.

In 1964 he was appointed Planning Officer with the newly established Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute at Lincoln, headed by Lance McCaskill.

In 1969 he completed a Master of Agricultural Science degree with First Class Honours, then in 1974 he travelled to the United States as Visiting Professor at Colorado State University.

Following this he undertook doctoral studies and completed a Ph.D with a research study of the mechanics of erosion in steep mountain gullies. Much of the work focused on the Mount Torlesse area.

In 1978 he was appointed Director of the Joint Centre for Environmental Sciences, a centre run collaboratively between Canterbury University and Lincoln. The Joint Centre was responsible for a Master of Science in Resource Management programme and the new appointment brought Dr Hayward into fulltime teaching.

In 1982 the Joint Centre merged with the Mountain Lands Institute and Dr Hayward was appointed Director of the new combined Centre for Resource Management.

By this time Dr Hayward realised that the proper study of how to utilize a nation's resources extended well beyond science into an amalgam of science, economics, sociology, policy analysis, planning and the like. The changes he initiated in pushing his Masters programme in this more broad-based direction made the degree unique and the graduates sought after by a wide range of government departments, local authorities and other institutions.

Dr Hayward was at the height of his powers over the last decade and had a two-fold effect on public policy. First there was his personal contribution through positions on the Planning and Environmental councils and the advice he gave Ministers. Secondly, he had an enormous educational influence on the Masters programme for which he was responsible and produced graduates who are now in many of the key policy formulation positions in the area of resource management in New Zealand.

Through his personal involvement with the Resource Management Act he has left a legacy which will affect the lives of all New Zealanders.

He also helped to promote Lincoln University's Bachelor of Resource Studies degree and this programme is about to produce its first graduates.

He was one of the first to see the significance of many of the Waitangi Tribunal decisions for resource management and made great efforts to include a Maori component in the course work for his Masters programme. He requested the appointment of a lecturer in Maori Studies at Lincoln and this has led on to the development of a Centre for Maori Studies and Research and a marked upturn in the enrolment of Maori students at the University.

In 1990, New Zealand's sesquicentennial year, Dr Hayward was awarded a Commemoration Medal for services to the environment.

Dr Hayward is survived by his parents Kath and Jock Hayward of Dunedin, wife Jan and daughters Bronwyn, Rachel and Janine.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.