Guided by his passion for the humanities

OBITUARY: Norman Maclean

Artist, writer and teacher Norman Maclean passed away on December 1, 2023, but his name will forever be synonymous with Gisborne Unity Theatre. In his 50 years with the theatre he performed, produced, painted sets, gathered props, sold tickets, operated lighting, served as vice president and president, and directed 24 plays.

He also directed three productions for Musical Theatre Gisborne, as well as high school shows.

Maclean returned to the stage in June last year to perform in Evolution Theatre’s production of Love Letters, and in August he directed Michael James Manaia, a one-man show, performed by Lawrence Mulligan.

Along with theatre, Maclean’s passion for the humanities encompassed painting, print-making, writing, teaching, travel; theology, spirituality and the metaphysical; Greek and Roman history, and the classics. He loved to travel and spent long periods of time in Britain and Greece. A long-time member of the Sea of Faith in Aotearoa, he delivered many talks about theological issues to the Gisborne group.

“I live in the past and to some extent have always done so,” wrote Maclean in 2021. “Small wonder then that I taught art and history for many years, especially classical studies. Ancient Greece and Rome are where I wander in my head and their imagery influences my print-making and painting as well as my writing.”

Maclean’s broad cultural life was celebrated at his funeral service where guests included many of the hundreds of secondary students he taught for 45 years before his retirement in 2015. Among former students who became lifelong friends with Maclean, and spoke at the service, were Peter Boshier, now Chief Ombudsman for New Zealand, advertising creative Philip Andrew, and artist Clayton Gibson.

Boshier recalled encountering Maclean at Gisborne Boys’ High in 1968.

“He tutored debating and public speaking and we had great success. It is because of Norman some of us developed the skills and confidence to use those to the best possible effect in our lives.”

Gibson shared what he described as a common experience of Maclean as a teacher.

“I’d go to turn the handle of the door to the classroom, and it was always a threshold moment because once you turned that handle and you moved into his classroom, into his realm, you knew you were going to be challenged. But you knew your soul was going to absolutely be met. He brought the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosophers, he brought the concepts of the great artists, he brought spiritual realities or questions to us and any subject was open for discussion.”

Andrew described Maclean’s classes as amazing and entertaining.

“He encouraged us to read, to be inquisitive, and that anything was possible. We talked about history, the classics, the Greeks, the Romans, ancient civilisations, politics, theatre, books, films, religion, comedy, spirituality, the universe and other dimensions, UFOs, the supernatural, the paranormal. Always he talked of possibilities.”

'He inspired my love of art, literature and history': Norman's sister, Coralie

Norman was a very cool brother, said Coralie Hunter in her eulogy.

“He inspired my love of art, literature and history.

“My strongest memories of the room at the end of the upstairs corridor of our home are of smells of oil paint, turps and Old Spice aftershave. It was of course Norman’s room.My three much older siblings were wonderful to their little sister and as you can imagine Norman was a very cool big brother. What kid wouldn’t want someone who could draw anything they asked for and was always funny?”

She recalled Norman’s time as a teacher in Henderson where he boarded with a couple who had that “amazing new-fangled contraption”, a television set.

“Norman would come home and regale me with wondrous stories of Lost in Space, and Mr Ed the Talking Horse and he’d sing me the whole Mr Ed song.”

Although he regarded music as the most supreme of the arts, Maclean did not develop his singing ability but, along with painting and print-making, he wrote. His literary output includes his 2009 book, Jesus On Our Own Ground, which won the $10,000 Ashton Wylie annual award for an unpublished work in the Body, Mind, Spirit genre. Maclean published his novel Revelation through Amazon in 2014.

In 2019, Steele Roberts published Pharisees and Fallacies,  a collection of essays that address aspects of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, including the creation myth, patriarchal biblical figures, sainthood, the Marys (virgin and prostitute); New Age fascinations and apocalyptic prophecies. Gobby, written for young adults, is Maclean’s most recent novel.

Maclean was also a contributor to Radio New Zealand and the network broadcast some of his short stories. He had a long involvement with Tairāwhiti Museum which hosted his solo exhibitions, Odyssey (1984), Impressions (1999), and Matrix (2013).

Despite his fascination with spirituality, Maclean’s outlook was secular and he was a popular marriage celebrant.

Maclean struggled with declining health over the past six years and in 2023 his illness was diagnosed as terminal. He returned to Europe later that year to say farewell to his many friends there, knowing he would not return.

“He never fussed about health failings,” said Maclean’s brother, Gavin.

“Told in June he had just months to live he kept it close to his chest and enjoyed a last jaunt in Europe before telling his family. Even in the brief lucid moments of the week before last, he remained jocular, ironical and mimicking.

“Last year, at his very lowest point in Waikato Hospital he dictated this: ‘Of all life’s great joys the greatest is love given and received. Love is a cliché and also the only reality which I’m experiencing already with great delight as many who know will realise it is fundamental to my whole outlook.

“Love, love extensively. All else is inadequate.”

Born on February 20, 1946, in the railway junction town of Marton, Norman Haydon Maclean was one of three siblings. Barbara was the eldest and Gavin his younger brother. After their parents divorced in 1950 the family moved to Taradale.

“God was in his heaven,” wrote Maclean in A 50s Childhood In Taradale. The memoir captures details such as the horse-drawn milk cart, his mother’s weekly shopping expedition, and the wild fennel that grew along Guppy Road.

“Barbara sternly warned me that inhaling the scent would guarantee that I wet the bed,” says Maclean in his story. “Appalled at the possibility, I would gulp down huge lungfuls of air before approaching the said fennel patch. I would sprint past with my heart galloping with my bag thumping on my back and my chest aching until I’d safely passed the danger zone.”

In 1956, the children’s mother Elaine announced she to planned to remarry and the family relocated to Gisborne. Coralie was born two years later.

“During his intermediate school years, Norman was injured,” said Andrew.

“A long convalescence set him back in school so when he began at Gisborne Boys’ High, he was put in lower stream classes. This feeling of being undervalued would contribute, I think, to his renowned sensitivity to any pupil of his in the same situation.”

Maclean gained bursary art in his senior year at Gisborne Boys’ High. Instead of enrolling in one of New Zealand’s two art schools, he studied at Ardmore Teachers Training College where he developed his love of theatre and drama. He then began full-time teaching, first in Henderson, Auckland, then at Makaraka Primary School.

Maclean and Isla Burgess met in the early 1970s. The couple lived in Riverside Road and married in 1978 but the marriage ended a year later.

In later years, Maurine Anderson became Maclean’s close companion for the rest of his life.

In 1998 he moved to Dunedin to look after his sister Barbara, who was terminally ill. After she passed away, he stayed on and enrolled in Otago Polytechnic’s art course where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Having joined the Gisborne Arts Society in 1968, Maclean regularly exhibited and organised shows.

“He represented the society on boards such as the Gisborne Art and History trust, Friends of the Museum, the Pride in Gisborne Trust and Gisborne District Council’s Creative Gisborne Committee,” said Philip Andrew. “He was instrumental in the establishment of the Gisborne Printmakers Group in 1976 and oversaw the move to a permanent studio at Lysnar House.”

In 2023, Maclean was nominated by friends and peers for a new year’s honour. Sadly, he passed away before the honour could be ratified. New year’s honours are not awarded posthumously.

“We have all been taught by Norman,” said Andrew.

“Beyond his enormous body of work, all his paintings, all of his prints, all of his plays and all of his artwork, all of his books and all of his writing, in one stupendous lifetime I’d say his greatest body of work is us.”