Obituary Professor R. H. Schwass

Press, 27 April 1987, Page 35

Obituary Professor R. H. Schwass

PA Wellington Professor Ronald Henry Schwass, an agricultural expert whose services were used by the Government in its bilateral aid' programmes in the 1960 s and 19705, died recently at his Eastbourne home. He was 63.. He was born at Marton, attended Wellington Boys’ College and Victoria University before serving in the Army and then the Air Force in World War 11, flying Catalina flying boats in the Pacific. After the war he re-

turned to New Zealand, and completed a degree in agricultural science at Massey University. He became professor of agricultural education at Massey. Under Government auspices, Professor Schwass went as an adviser in agricultural education to Indonesia in 1961 to 1963, and in 1966 to Thailand. In Thailand, where he spent seven years, he helped establish an agricultural faculty at Khon Daen University. Because of heart prob-

lems he returned to New Zealand, and lectured part-time at Massey. Professor Schwass went to Western Samoa in the mid 1970 s as an agricultural adviser to the University of the South Pacific in Apia. He retired in 1979, living first at Palmerston North and then Eastbourne. He was interested in genealogy and was a keen reader of history and philosophy. Professor Schwass is survived by his wife, and three daughters.