12 Facts About Theodore Rigg

Sir Theodore Rigg was a New Zealand agricultural chemist and scientific administrator.

Theodore Rigg entered Victoria College, where he was a chemistry student under Professor Thomas Easterfield; he graduated MSc with first-class honours in 1911.

Theodore Rigg had followed his father into the Quakers and so, when war began, he looked for humanitarian work and joined a relief organisation of the Society of Friends.

Theodore Rigg distributed food and money to the needy in France, Albania, Montenegro and Russia, and was able to use his organisational and agricultural skills to assist in the farming recovery and the relief of refugees.

In 1920, back in New Zealand, Theodore Rigg joined the foundation staff of the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, under the directorship of his former mentor, Easterfield.

Theodore Rigg became a leading figure in all aspects of agricultural research.

Theodore Rigg was appointed head of the Department of Agriculture and Chemistry in 1924, assistant director in 1928 and director of the Institute in 1933, on the retirement of Easterfield.

Theodore Rigg was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1938 New Year Honours.

Theodore Rigg married Esther Mary White in Philadelphia on 8 October 1919.

Theodore Rigg married Kathleen Maisey Curtis on 2 December 1966.

Theodore Rigg was a retired mycologist, formerly at the Cawthron Institute, and elected first female Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1936.

Theodore Rigg's ashes are interred at Marsden Valley Cemetery, alongside those of his two wives.