Woman to receive honorary degree

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33815, 11 April 1975, Page 15

Woman to receive honorary degree

A Springfield - born woman, the sister of the poet Rewi Alley, will be! the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Victoria University. Mrs Gwen Somerset, now aged 81 and living tn Wellington, will receive the, honorary degree of Doctor! of Laws at the university’s graduation ceremony at the! end of the month in recognition of her distinguished service to community education. particularly to preschool education Educated at Christchurch Girls’ High School, Mrs Somerset trained at the Christchurch Teachers’ College before going to teach at Oxford, where she met her husband who later became, senior lecturer in education at Victoria University. A pioneer, in early childhood education, she has been; Dominion adviser and president of the New Zealand Federation of Play Centres She is a past executive member of the National Council of Women, has served on the Victoria University council of adult education, and is still a representative of voluntary bodies on the university’s extension advisory committee. She was awarded the M.B.E. in, 1965. Her brother is also an honorary graduate of the’ university. At the same ceremony the poet. Denis Glover, will be! awarded the honorary! degree of Doctor of Litera-j ture in recognition of his! outstanding services.to New' Zealand literature and to the! cultural life of the country, i Bom in Dunedin. Denis’ Glover was educated at Auckland Grammar School and Christ’s College before taking a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Canterbury. He spent much of his early creative life in Christchurch and worked at both Caxton Press and Pegasus Press in the city and later as a teacher of printing and

typography in the Technical Correspondence Institute, based in Wellington. The former Prime Minister. Sir John Marshall, will receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at the university’s second graduation ceremony, on May I. Early in his political career, from 1948 to 1951, Sir John Marshall lectured in law at Victoria University.