Whaingaroa has lost a long-time identity and pioneering academic with the death at 87 last week of Professor Jane Ritchie.
Not only was Professor Ritchie the first woman to graduate with a PhD in psychology from a New Zealand university, but under her leadership Waikato became the first university in the country to offer a course on women and psychology.
The ground-breaking course drew many women in particular to the campus and she was to teach it for 35 years, as well as programmes on violence in family and society.
Even before that, Jane and her husband James – also a top academic at Waikato University – were busy establishing themselves out at Whale Bay, where they’d successfully bid on a section and set up what was to become the family bach in a Skyline garage they called ‘The Shack’.
This was the 60s, a time when there was still a long and winding dirt road between Raglan and Hamilton, and they were two esteemed professors embarking on a new lifestyle for themselves and their five children.
Jane – herself the daughter of Victoria University-based academics Pearl and Ernest Beaglehole – told the Chronicle some years back of how she remembered washing her babies’ nappies by hand and getting milk for their bottles from the nearby Calverts’ farm, keeping it fresh in chilly bins with ice packs.
Meantime the couple went on to become prominent child-rearing experts, their 1981 book ‘Spare the Rod’ damning physical discipline in favour of the positive reinforcement now widely accepted in society.
They also formed strong links with Maori early in their careers, and Jane’s postdoctoral work on preschool education for tamariki Maori contributed to the development of kohanga reo.
James at the time headed Waikato University’s psychology department which he’d earlier established.
The Ritchies finally moved permanently from Hillcrest to Whale Bay in 1990, building two homes amid the native bush overlooking Indicators – a place to which some of their grandchildren have since gravitated and remain to this day.
Jane continued to commute to the university three days a week, lecturing well into her 70s and only retiring once James passed away at age 79 in 2009.
She volunteered for many years at Trade Aid in downtown Raglan, then later at the local second-hand bookshop. She became a marriage celebrant, conducting ceremonies around the district and beyond. She was also a Justice of the Peace.
Grand-daughter Isa recalled this week that Jane enjoyed this “service to the community”, and also how she was often surrounded by family during her final years at Raglan West, having settled into a home nearer to town.
“Her daughter Helen in particular (who lives just beyond Whale Bay) played a large role in supporting her during her final years, as did her sister Ruth, who on many visits from Los Angeles would ensure Jane’s needs for care were sorted.”
Isa has had a close relationship with her grandmother, continuing that proud academic legacy by also graduating – in 2017 – with a PhD from Waikato University.
Said an 82-year-old Jane at the time: “As Isa worked through her doctorate I enjoyed hearing her talk about her research and writing, and I couldn’t help comparing it with my PhD done back in the 1950s.”
In turn Isa – now also a published author – credits her grandmother as having been a big influence on her writing. A voracious reader, the octogenarian “always gave us lots of books to read over the years”, Isa recalled.
Isa’s mother Jenny, the oldest of Jane and James’ children, is herself also a prominent academic and currently an associate professor at Victoria University’s School of Education.
Professor Jane Ritchie was lauded this week by Waikato University vice-chancellor Neil Quigley as having served many organisations relevant to her role as both a mother and a researcher. In 1989 she was awarded an OBE, and in 1993 was recognised by the New Zealand Psychological Society as a Pioneer Woman in Psychology in New Zealand.
In acknowledgement of her contribution to the university and wider community, Jane was conferred the title of Emeritus Professor in 2010.
A service honouring Jane was held at the university’s Lady Goodfellow Chapel last Monday.
