REEVES, The Right Reverend and The Honourable Sir Paul Alfred, ONZ, GCMG, GCVO, QSO

Sir Paul Reeves, born 1932, made an outstanding contribution to the Anglican Church and the community.  He was Primate and Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia from 1980 to 1985 and was Bishop of Waiapu in 1971.  He was ordained as a Priest in 1960, was a Lecturer in church history, and served as Director of Christian Education until 1971.

In 1985 he retired as Archbishop to accept the appointment as Governor-General of New Zealand, an office he held until 1990.  He was the first person of Maori descent appointed to this high office.

Sir Paul held a number of national and international positions.  He as appointed as the Anglican Observer at the United Nations from 1985 to 1988 and during this period, he also assisted the Bishop of the Diocese of New York.  He served as the Deputy Leader of the Commonwealth Observer Group to the Ghanaian elections in 1996 and was Chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Trust.  He was the Chairperson of the Fiji Constitution Review Commission from 1995 to 1997 and was also the Commonwealth Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Guyana.  He was appointed the inaugural Chair of Toi Te Taiao, The Bioethics Council in 2002, and was Chair of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Trust.  He was the Visiting Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the University of Edinburgh in 1994, visiting Professor at the University of Auckland from 1997 to 2000, and was appointed Chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology in 2005.  He was Chair of the Tuhono Turst and Chair of Hui Taumata.

Citation prepared 2007