Clive and Merrilee Palmer

Clive Palmer and Merrilee Harrison were married in All Saints Church, Palmerston North on May 7, 1966, then headed out to Massey for celebrations. This featured photos in the grounds of Wharerata and wining and dining in the Refectory. They were the last guests to use the Refectory dining facilities before that icon of student meals and activities was converted for other uses. Their honeymoon was in Fiji where they caught up with several Massey colleagues.

When they first met, Clive was on the Massey staff as Public Relations Officer after completing his MAgrSc in 1962. During his student days, he had been President of the Student’s Association from 1958 to 1960.

Merrilee, a Palmerston North lass, was completing her BA at Canterbury and had come home during varsity holidays. She was invited to a dinner party at her cousin’s place and one of the guests was this guy from Massey. As they say – the rest is history.

After a period of flatting, Clive and Merrilee moved into a new house in Worcester Street, Palmerston North. Merrilee became a teacher in local secondary schools and two children were born in those early years.

In 1973, new pastures called with Clive’s appointment as science attaché to the NZ High Commission in London, a four-year posting. Another child was born there, lots of adventures were had, and they returned to Wellington, settling in Khandallah.

Clive held a number of positions with responsibilities for international science in the then DSIR. Once the children were older, Merrilee went back to teaching, this time in special needs at the Correspondence School and head of transition at Newlands College. Clive became involved in the government reforms to science in the mid-1980s in review and advisory portfolios and later as general manager with the team establishing the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. He then had a ten-year stint as a private management consultant working and living in developing countries.

Clive and Merrilee have “retired” to a lifestyle block in Waikanae, Kāpiti Coast, have ten grandchildren and their tribe spread around the Wellington region and NSW, Australia.