Vice-Chancellor Of University

Press, Volume C, Issue 29444, 21 February 1961, Page 15

Vice-Chancellor Of University

Dr. Leslie Leigh Pownall, professor of geography at the University of Canterbury, has been appointed Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the university in succession to Dr. F. J. Llewellyn, who has resigned to become chairman of the new University Grants Committee of New Zealand.

Making the announcement last evening, the

Chancellor (Mr C. H. Perkins) said Dr. Pownall - was chosen from 13 applicants, about half of whom were overseas.

Dr. Llewellyn will leave Canterbury on April 13 and it is expected that Dr. Pownall will then take over immediately.

The Canterbury University Council, which will soon assume full autonomy, has shattered many precedents by appointing to its principal office a man who, at 39, must be the youngest to assume such heavy responsibilities in a New Zealand university and is virtually “home-grown” to that he is a Canterbury graduate and on the present staff. But Dr. Pownall is well known and popular, has a notable academic record to his own right, has travelled extensively overseas, and has contributed widely to local, national, and international discussions on urban land utilisation and planning. ' Academic Honours Dr. Pownall was educated at the Palmerston North Boys’ High School where he was Rector’s Prizeman and then trained at the« Wellington Teachers’ College where he was president of the Students’ Association in 1941 At the University of Canterbury he graduated and then took a master of arts degree with equivalent first-class honours in geography in 1946. Ten years later he took a New Zealand doctorate of philosophy. From 1941 to 1946 he was an assistant master at the Christchurch Boys’ High School and for the next two years was a relieving lecturer to geography at the Christchurch Teachers’ College, with part-time lecturing at Canterbury University. In 1948-49 he was lecturer in charge of geography at the Ardmore Teachers’ College. For the next two years he was lecturer in geography at Auckland University College. Appointed senior lecturer to geography at the University of Canterbury in 1951, Dr. Pownall quickly enhanced his reputation in the next 10 years. He was acting head of the department for almost a year soon after his appointment He was national treasurer of the New Zealand Geographical Society from 1951 to 1954 and then national secretary until' 1960. He was supervising examiner for school certificate geography for several years to this period, a member of the geography syllabus revision committee.

and is now national vice-presi-dent of the Association of University Teachers. He became professor of geography to succession to Dr. George Jobberns last year. After winning a Whitebeck fellowship to geography at the University of Wisconsin for 1947-1948, Dr. Pownall came back to Christchurch and was chairman of the geography section of the Seventh New Zealand Science Congress in 1951.

In 1957 he was awarded a Carnegie travel award and again went to the United States and Canada to study the role of community education in urban growth. In 1960 he was invited to take part in an urban symposium at the University of Lund, Sweden, after attending t the International Geographical Union Congress in Stockholm. He has also been invited to be organiser and chairman of an urban symposium at the Tenth Pacific Science Congress in Honolulu this year, and to attend the jubilee congress of the University of Hong Kong in Sentember.

Dr Pownall has a very long list of publications resulting from his research covering geographical and social studies and urban development and land use in New Zealand and overseas He is a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Association of American Geographers, the Institute of British Geographers. and a fellow of the American Geographical Society. He is a member of the Canterburv Club, treasurer of the North American Club, a university member of the Christchurch West High School Board of Governors, a member of the Christchurch City Council's housing reclamation committee, and was a member of the organising committee of. last year’s Christchurch Conference on urban redevelopment At school. Dr. Pownall played in the first fifteen, but suffered "an injury on which he was later classified unfit for war service. He was also captain of school hockey and leader of the school orchestra. He now plays badminton in the university staff club, is a member of the Christchurch Chamber Music Society, and has wide interests in literature and art

Mrs Pownall is well-known in university circles and has travelled widely with her husband.