Gordon PARSONSON Obituary

Just finished reading Prof Parsonson´s entry on Marsden in DNZB. He did some great work in curating documents for online research.

Just saw this. My greatest academic mentor and friend. A living inspiration and a giant among men. Deeply missed and loved.

Though New Zealand and England were the countries he loved, Dad used to enjoy his trips to Australia. After I moved to Lake Macquarie in 1999, he came to visit us regularly including one very hot January with Ann, Jan, and Katie. Dad was an inspiring teacher, as so many have said, and also an inspiring supportive Dad. Love and humour were always close to the surface. Grief touched him deeply with the untreatable illness and passing of his wife, our dear Mother, in 1995. From then until his passing, he threw himself into research, the garden, keeping up with the latest works in various branches of history, and going to concerts.
It is a great comfort to read the tributes on this page, and we thank you so much for taking the trouble to recall your experiences of our much loved Dad.

Sincere condolences to Gordon Parsonson's family. Gordon was one of my history lecturers at Otago University in the 1960s. I particularly remember him talking about early European voyaging in the Pacific and especially around Vanuatu. He taught me to treat ancient records with care.

Gordon, you were an inspirational lecturer who brought to life for me the history of the medieval period, the French revolution, aspects of the Pacific and more. You were never afraid to question and revise your own research and thus encouraged me to do the same. And you offered and provided extensive historical guidance and feedback beyond the call of duty over several years. I will always remember you with great respect.

Very sad news - my condolences to Gordon's family and close friends. He was a truly inspirational teacher of Pacific history, and particularly for me, the British exploration era. As a rugby/beer obsessed 19yr old, Gordon's ability to fire my imagination was unmatched. His gentle enthusiasm and delivery remains a wonderful memory nearly 40 yrs later.

Dear Cousins, we have not met but as a university lecturer myself, I was aware of Gordon and his work, and as I worked at Waikato University I was also aware of your work for Tainui's Waitangi Treaty claim, Ann. Gordon, like his father Stanley Parsonson, lived a similarly long and fruitful life. My sincere condolences to all of Gordon's family, may you be blessed with many happy memories of Gordon over the years to ease you through your grief.

You lectured me in Medieval (1969) the Stuarts(1970) Ethnohistory of Oceania(1972). You were simply the best and you always said hello around the campus.