1. Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake was a New Zealand politician who served as the 26th prime minister of New Zealand, serving for a brief period in 1957 and then from 1960 to 1972, and as the 13th governor-general of New Zealand, serving from 1977 to 1980.
Keith Holyoake is the only New Zealand politician to have held both positions.
Keith Holyoake left formal education at the age of 12 to help on the family farm.
Keith Holyoake was first elected to Parliament in 1932 for the Motueka electorate, representing the conservative Reform Party.
Keith Holyoake became leader of the National Party and prime minister two months before the 1957 election, after Holland's resignation due to ill health.
Keith Holyoake's government rewrote the criminal legal code, passing the Crimes Act 1961.
In foreign policy, Keith Holyoake supported the United States and sent troops to Vietnam.
Keith Holyoake led his party to four consecutive election victories.
Keith Holyoake's term was limited to three years, not the normal five.
Keith Holyoake is the third-longest-serving New Zealand prime minister, surpassed only by Richard Seddon's 13 years and William Massey's close to 13 years.
Keith Holyoake was the first to be born in the 20th century.
Keith Holyoake was born at Mangamutu, a short distance from Pahiatua, a town in New Zealand's Wairarapa region, the son of Henry Victor Keith Holyoake and Esther Eves.
Keith Holyoake was raised in the Plymouth Brethren church, and his social life as a child was very restricted.
Keith Holyoake's mother had trained as a school teacher, and continued his education at home.
Keith Holyoake was the Reform Party's candidate in the resulting by-election in 1932, and was successful.
Keith Holyoake became the youngest Member of Parliament at the time, at the age of 28.
The 1937 electoral redistribution was unfavourable for him and, when the boundary changes applied at the 1938 election, Keith Holyoake lost his seat to a rising star of the governing Labour Party, Jerry Skinner.
Keith Holyoake had been discussed as a possible successor to the party's conscientious but lack-lustre leader, Adam Hamilton but, because Keith Holyoake was no longer an MP, that ceased to be an option.
In 1943, Keith Holyoake returned to Parliament as MP for Pahiatua, having been lined up by National for that nomination.
Keith Holyoake was for a year Minister for Scientific and Industrial Research, and was Minister of Marketing until the department was abolished in 1953.
Keith Holyoake twice went to London to re-negotiate price levels on meat and wool products, and in 1955 attended the Food and Agriculture Organization conference in Rome.
In 1953, in partnership with his friend Theodore Nisbet Gibbs and Gibbs' son Ian, Keith Holyoake purchased a block of land on the northern shore of Lake Taupo from Ian's employer.
On his deathbed, Keith Holyoake said that Kinloch was his proudest achievement.
Keith Holyoake became Prime Minister two months before the 1957 election, when incumbent Prime Minister Sidney Holland retired due to ill-health.
Keith Holyoake became Minister of Maori Affairs on the retirement of Ernest Corbett.
Keith Holyoake had little time to establish himself, and lost to the Walter Nash-led Labour Party by a margin of two seats.
Keith Holyoake became Leader of the Opposition for the next three years.
Historians attribute the victory to Keith Holyoake's skilful campaigning, particularly his attacks on Minister of Finance Arnold Nordmeyer's so-called "Black Budget" of 1958, which had increased taxes on petrol, cigarettes and liquor.
Keith Holyoake served as his own Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The Keith Holyoake government implemented numerous reforms of the public services and government institutions: for example, it created the Office of the Ombudsman and numerous quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations, and strengthened parliamentary scrutiny of the executive.
Keith Holyoake's government rewrote the criminal legal code, passing the Crimes Act 1961; the Act abolished capital punishment, though only ten National MPs voted for its abolition.
In 1960, the Keith Holyoake government published the "Hunn Report", a wide-ranging summary of Maori assets, and the state of Maori in New Zealand at the time.
The report was a damning indictment of past governments' neglect of Maori within society, and Keith Holyoake endeavoured to act on its findings.
Keith Holyoake accepted the post-war political consensus; he believed in the necessity of a mixed economy, championing a Keynesian strategy of public investment to maintain demand.
However, as an anti-socialist, Keith Holyoake sought to reduce the role of trade unions in industrial relations.
Keith Holyoake's government was comfortably re-elected for a second consecutive term in 1963.
Keith Holyoake deliberately played down the issue, and chose not to vocally oppose British membership of the EEC.
In 1963, Keith Holyoake announced the policy of banning the storage or testing of nuclear weapons within New Zealand territory.
Keith Holyoake led his party to a narrow and unexpected victory in the 1969 election.
Two years prior Keith Holyoake appointed a rising backbencher, Robert Muldoon as Minister of Finance in 1967, although ranked him lowly in his Cabinet.
Political commentators speculated about when Keith Holyoake would retire, and by the early 1970s his closest allies, including Jack Marshall, were privately encouraging him to step down.
Marshall succeeded him in the ensuing leadership ballot, and Keith Holyoake remained in Cabinet as Minister of Foreign Affairs until National lost office at the end of the year.
When National under Marshall was defeated at the 1972 election, Keith Holyoake remained prominent in opposition.
Keith Holyoake became doubtful of Marshall's chance to regain government with time and threw his influence with the caucus behind Marshall's deputy Muldoon.
Keith Holyoake played an active part in the campaign for the 1975 election, which saw National regain power again under Muldoon.
In 1977, Keith Holyoake was unexpectedly and controversially appointed Governor-General of New Zealand by Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of the then Prime Minister Robert Muldoon.
Keith Holyoake was succeeded from his seat by John Falloon.
In particular, Keith Holyoake refused to comment on the 1978 general election, which gave Labour a narrow plurality of votes but a majority of seats in parliament to National.
Usually, governors-general serve for five years, but Keith Holyoake was the oldest governor-general to date.
Keith Holyoake twice married Norma Janet Ingram: first in a civil ceremony on 24 September 1934, and again on 11 January 1935 at their Presbyterian church in Motueka.
Keith Holyoake had a very close and somewhat paternalistic friendship with Marilyn Waring, National's youngest female MP during her tenure.
Keith Holyoake quickly entered the Opposition Research Unit as a part-time advisor under George Gair, the Shadow Minister of Housing.
Keith Holyoake, so overjoyed that a woman was willing to run for National in a safe "blue" seat, personally arrived within the hour to Parliament House and offered her the selection without even formally introducing himself.
Keith Holyoake is thought to have helped soften Holyoake's ambivalent views on LGBT rights.
Keith Holyoake died on 8 December 1983, aged 79, in Wellington.