Our Donors

Peter and Doris Macdonald have been providing scholarships to Wellington-based industrial design students for almost two decades. Their annual scholarship, the Peter and Doris Macdonald Scholarship, aims to advance the physical, scientific and practical aspects of industrial design in New Zealand by providing a scholarship each year to a third year industrial design student studying at Massey’s College of Creative Arts.

Peter and Doris established the scholarship to encourage the advancement of industrial design in New Zealand. Peter became aware of industrial design while travelling in connection with his career as a scientist in the former Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. While visiting Scandinavia he was struck by the impact and importance of design on their mass-produced products and furniture. He recognised that through industrial design the Scandinavians were able to create highly desirable and distinctive products, which gave them prize winning international recognition for their quality, utility and value.

This insight led Peter to the conviction that industrial design was of fundamental importance to New Zealand’s economic and cultural development. Fortunately, Peter and Doris were able to act on their conviction by providing funding for a scholarship award. Mr Macdonald says he wanted to bring together bright students and practical ideas.

The Peter and Doris Macdonald endowment fund, which sits within the Massey Foundation, ensures the visionary insight and outstanding generosity shown by Peter and Doris can continue to advance industrial design in New Zealand for many years to come.

Esteemed plant pathologist, philanthropist and Massey University alumnus Dr Garry Latch donated $400,000 to the Massey Foundation to establish the Garrick Latch postgraduate scholarship. The $15,000 scholarship aims to assist and encourage New Zealand postgraduate scholars in the field of plant pathology to travel overseas to collaborate with Universities in order to broaden and enrich both their minds and their research.

Dr Latch completed a Master of Agricultural Science at Massey in 1958, after which he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship that led to a PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Wisconsin. Returning to New Zealand in late 1960 Dr Latch joined the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and established a sub-station of the Plant Disease Division in Palmerston North. It was here that he assisted plant breeders to develop disease resistance in grasses and legumes and also used pathogenic fungus for biological control of pasture insects.

Dr Latch had an extensive international career working on a variety of successful research projects including helping to find a strain of fungus to control the coconut rhinoceros beetle in Tonga and Samoa.

Having received a travel scholarship himself, Dr Latch says his desire to create this scholarship came about from his personal experience abroad and the impact his overseas study had to his own career.

“Throughout my career I found that the contacts I made while a student in the USA and sabbaticals overseas, together with participation at conferences, greatly assisted me with my research. This is why I believe it important that students should have the opportunity to have overseas experiences as soon as possible.”

Each year, the scholarship is awarded to a Massey student enrolled full-time in a PhD in either plant pathology, molecular plant pathology or a closely related field of study.

A generous bequest from a devoted dog lover has helped the Massey University Foundation establish a new fund dedicated to the research of small dog health and well-being.

Aileen Claridge was known to have as many as six small dogs staying with her after she retired to the Kapiti Coast in the 1980s. In addition to her own griffon dogs, Aileen would frequently provide a home for “visitors”, looking after orphaned dogs and pets of friends who went away. The love and companionship she had with these dogs, and her belief that more research could be done to improve the health and wellbeing of small dog breeds, motivated Aileen to leave a gift in her will to the Massey University Veterinary School.

Aileen always had a natural curiosity and was a believer in lifelong learning. Therefore, it was no surprise that Aileen became a professional librarian. After graduating from university she was employed in the Country Library Service in Wellington. For several years she drove the book van around the South Island, bringing a mobile library to small rural towns and settlements. During the 1960s she was head of circulation in the Massey University Library.

After retiring from the National Library in 1984 Aileen moved to the Kapiti Coast, where she had ‘Miss Claridge’s’, a quality childrenswear and linen shop in Waikanae. Her passion for griffon dogs began around this time. Aileen’s legacy, in the form of the Aileen Claridge Small Dog Research Fund, will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of New Zealand’s popular small dog breeds.

Her bequest is a fitting way to celebrate Aileen’s love for these small dogs and leave an enduring contribution to veterinary research.