Alan Stewart

Sir Alan Stewart (8 December 1917 – 1 September 2004) was a New Zealand educator and university administrator. He was principal of Massey Agricultural College from 1959 to 1963 and founding vice-chancellor of Massey University from 1964 to 1983, during which time he guided the institution's transition from agricultural college to full university. He is noted for building the university's internationally recognised agricultural programme, as well as for greatly expanding the university's extramural programme to make tertiary education available to rural New Zealanders. He was knighted in 1981 for services to education. Biography Early life Alan Stewart was born on 8 December 1917 in Auckland. He attended primary school in Auckland and Whakatane, and then his first years of high school at Whakatane District High School, where he was awarded a junior national scholarship. In 1934, he transferred to Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland. Stewart excelled in sport at school, serving as captain of the swimming team and also taking part in boxing and athletics. In 1936, Stewart began taking lectures at Auckland University College while playing rugby for the Auckland junior representative rugby team. In 1937, he began lectures at Massey Agricultural College in Palmerston North where he was awarded the Lord Bledisloe Prize and the 1940 senior scholarship in agriculture for his academic achievements, and where he earned his Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 1939 and Master of Agricultural Science in 1940. While at Massey, he served as captain of both the college rugby team and the Manawatu rugby team and was a member of the North Island Universities' rugby team. He was nominated for the All Black trials in 1939. Stewart also held several college championships in tennis, swimming, sprinting and hurdles.