William Leslie Renwick was a New Zealand educationalist.
35 Facts About Bill Renwick
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Bill Renwick was educated in Northland and Auckland before training as a teacher at Auckland Teachers' Training College.
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Bill Renwick performed background research on Treaty of Waitangi claims, and wrote an extensive review for the University of Waikato on their handling of complaints against a doctoral student.
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Bill Renwick had a variety of committee and board roles in New Zealand and overseas, including as a council member of the University of the South Pacific, a member of the OECD Education Committee, chair of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO, a member of the governance board for the Commonwealth of Learning, and as a member of the QEII Arts Council and the advisory committee of the historical branch of the Department of Internal Affairs.
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Bill Renwick helped found Toi Whakaari, the National Drama School, and the National Dance School, as well the New Zealand Youth Choir.
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Bill Renwick published many papers, and a biography on Colin Scrimgeour, whose radio programme had sparked his love of singing.
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Bill Renwick received a Distinguished Visitor Award from Monbu-sho, the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture in Japan, a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, and the Mackie Medal from the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Bill Renwick gave the 1987 John Beaglehole Memorial Lecture and the inaugural Peter Freyberg Memorial Lecture.
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Bill Renwick's parents were William Arthur Renwick and Agnes Edith Martha Renwick.
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Bill Renwick's father was unemployed, but later worked on a road gang.
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Bill Renwick attended Matakohe, Newton Central, and Te Papapa primary schools.
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Bill Renwick's brothers were a welder and a truck driver, and Renwick's desire at age 14 was to become a carpenter, until his teachers encouraged him to stay on at school.
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Bill Renwick then attended Auckland Teachers' Training College, Auckland University, and Victoria University of Wellington.
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Bill Renwick graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria in 1952.
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Bill Renwick studied at the London University Institute of Education and graduated with a Master of Arts in 1961.
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Bill Renwick was younger than many of his colleagues, and had a reputation as a "bright young man" and a "mouthpiece of the new left".
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In May 1971 Bill Renwick succeeded Joseph Langmuir Hunter as Assistant Director-General of Education, under new Director Robin Williams.
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Bill Renwick had responsibility for organising a government-backed seminar on educational planning, which was held in Wellington in May 1972.
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Beeby and Bill Renwick met monthly for lunch and Beeby commented on and reviewed many of Bill Renwick's publications.
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Bill Renwick influenced Beeby's thinking on educational policy in developing countries, discussed extensively revisions to Beeby's last book, The Biography of an Idea: Beeby on Education, and provided an "elegant and thoughtful" assessment of Beeby for the latter's 90th birthday festschrift.
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Bill Renwick was promoted to Director-General of Education in 1975, replacing Ned Dobbs.
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The Director-General of Education, Bill Renwick, could have been an obstacle but instead announced his retirement, and a new head for the Department of Education was to be appointed.
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From 1971 to 1988, Bill Renwick was a council member of the University of the South Pacific.
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In December 2000, Vice-Chancellor Bryan Gould called on Bill Renwick to provide "a full review of the University's handling of the case", a process that was initially intended to take three weeks.
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Bill Renwick finally provided his 161-page report in September 2002, and made a number of recommendations, including that a formal apology be made to the Jewish community.
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Bill Renwick had a love of singing, begun when listening to "Uncle Scrim" as a child.
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Bill Renwick was a co-founder of the New Zealand Youth Choir.
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Bill Renwick was the choir's chairman of trustees from 1979 to 1988.
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Bill Renwick helped found Toi Whakaari the National Drama School and the New Zealand School of Dance.
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Bill Renwick died in Wellington on 29 June 2013, at the age of 84.
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In 1977, Bill Renwick was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal.
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Bill Renwick was invited to give the John Beaglehole Memorial Lecture in 1987.
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In 1991, Bill Renwick gave the inaugural Peter Freyberg Memorial Lecture.
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In 2011 Renwick published a biography of Colin Scrimgeour, Scrim: The Man With a Mike, billed as "a cautionary tale of one of New Zealand's most popular radio broadcasters".
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Bill Renwick published many reports, several books and a selection of speeches, a selection of which are listed here:.