Wilf Malcolm

Wilfred Gordon Malcolm CBE (29 November 1933 – 6 October 2018) was a New Zealand mathematician and university administrator. He was professor of pure mathematics at Victoria University of Wellington from the mid 1970s, until serving as vice-chancellor of the University of Waikato between 1985 and 1994.

Wilf Malcolm CBE
Born	Wilfred Gordon Malcolm (1933-11-29)29 November 1933 Feilding, New Zealand
Died	6 October 2018(2018-10-06) (aged 84) Auckland, New Zealand
Alma mater	Victoria University of Wellington
Spouse(s)	Edmée Ruth Prebensen ( m. 1959)
Scientific career
Fields	Pure mathematics
Institutions	Victoria University of Wellington
Thesis	Ultraproducts and higher order models (1972)
Doctoral advisor	George Hughes Max Cresswell C.J. Seelye
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato
In office 1985–1994
Preceded by	Don Llewellyn
Succeeded by	Bryan Gould

Biography

Born in Feilding on 29 November 1933, Malcolm was educated at Feilding Agricultural High School. He went on to study at Wellington Teachers' College and Victoria University College, graduating Master of Arts with first-class honours in 1957.[1][2] He won a Shirtcliffe Fellowship, which enabled him to take parts II and III of the Mathematical Tripos, specialising in algebra and topology, at the University of Cambridge.[2] While in England, Malcolm married Edmée Ruth Prebensen.[2]

Malcolm returned to Victoria, where he took up a lecturership in pure mathematics.[2] Between 1964 and 1966, he spent time away from the university, working as the general secretary of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions.[2] However, he returned to lecturing at Victoria in 1967, and was promoted to senior lecturer the following year.[2] In 1972, he completed his PhD thesis, titled Ultraproducts and higher order models, supervised by George Hughes and Max Cresswell from the Department of Philosophy, and C.J. Seelye from the Mathematics Department.[2][3] In 1975, Malcolm was promoted to reader, and then to professor soon after.[2]

In 1985, Malcolm moved to the University of Waikato to take up the vice-chancellorship, serving in that role until 1994.[4]

In the 1994 Queen's Birthday Honours, Malcolm was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to tertiary education.[5] The following year, he was conferred with an honorary doctorate by the University of Waikato.[6] The Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research at Waikato was named in his honour in 2002, in recognition of his contribution to education.[7]

Malcolm died in Auckland on 6 October 2018.[8]

References

1. "NZ university graduates 1870–1961: Ma". Shadows of Time. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
2. "Professor Wilf Malcolm" (PDF). NZMS Newsletter (33). April 1985. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
3. Malcolm, Wilfred Gordon (1972). Ultraproducts and higher order models (PhD). Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
4. "Former vice-chancellors of the University of Waikato". University of Waikato. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
5. "No. 53697". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 1994. p. 34.
6. "Honorary doctors of the University of Waikato". University of Waikato. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
7. "Academy and learning". Art in the Gaps. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
8. "Wilfred Gordon Malcolm death notice". New Zealand Herald. 8 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2018.

Academic offices
Preceded by Don Llewellyn	Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato 1985–1994	Succeeded by Bryan Gould