Minister says Pacific leader will be sadly missed

Pacific Island Affairs Minister Georgina te Heuheu today paid tribute to Ronald Crocombe, Emeritus Professor of the University of the South Pacific (USP).

Professor Crocombe died in Auckland last Friday. He had just been inducted as one of six fellows of the Atenisi University in Tonga.

Mrs te Heuheu said Professor Crocombe's wise and thoughtful contributions to the development of the Pacific over many years, even after his retirement, would be sadly missed.

‘One of his most recent authoritative books is 50 years of study into 4000 years of Asia's influence on the Pacific titled Asia in the Pacific Islands: Replacing the West.'

Professor Crocombe was born in New Zealand but lived and worked in the Pacific Islands for half a century, where he was known as the academic father figure of Pacific studies.

He served as director of Australia National University's New Guinea Research Unit in the 1960s and most notably as Professor of Pacific Studies at the USP for 20 years, beginning in the 1970s. He was appointed Emeritus Professor in 1989.

Mrs te Heuheu paid tribute to Professor Crocombe's wife Marjorie, their children and grandchildren.

‘Not only will he be greatly missed by his family, but by people and communities across the Pacific,' she said.