Dove-Myer Robinson

Dove-Myer Robinson statue, Auckland

Sir Dove-Myer Robinson , born Mayer Dove Robinson (born June 15, 1901 in Sheffield , Yorkshire , England , † August 14, 1989 in Auckland , New Zealand ) was an English - New Zealand politician , longtime mayor of Auckland, entrepreneur and environmental activist .

Life

Dove-Myer Robinson was born under the name Mayer Dove Robinson on June 15, 1901 as the sixth of eight children of the married couple Ida Brown and Moss Robinson in Sheffield in the south of Yorkshire. His father traded in cheap jewelry and used furniture. The family was poor and moved frequently. As a child, Mayer Dove often had to deal with anti-Semitic hostility and thus learned to fight.

When he was 13, his family emigrated to New Zealand and lived in Auckland, where his father worked as a pawnbroker. Mayer Dove attended a school in Devonport in Auckland , but left when he was 14 to work as a messenger boy . He later earned a living as a traveling merchant, henceforth called himself Dove-Myer Robinson, abandoned his Jewish faith and became an atheist .

On September 12, 1924, he married his wife Adelaide Elizabeth Matthews , daughter of a hotelier, in Gore . The family went back to Auckland. The marriage resulted in two daughters. In 1932 he divorced his wife and married 17-year-old Veda Alice Davis in Auckland on December 7, 1937 . After just a month, the two separated, and after Robinson met Bettine Williams , he divorced his wife in 1940. On March 15, 1941, he married Bettine Williams , his third wife. From this marriage there were two daughters and one son. This marriage was not permanent either, he ended it in 1959. That same year, on June 15, he married his fourth wife, Thelma Ruth Thompson , an executive of his company in Auckland . The marriage produced a daughter. In 1969 this marriage also came to an end after Robinson wanted to run for a third term as mayor of Auckland, which his wife opposed.

Professional career

When Robinson moved back to Auckland he took over his father's business and started selling motorcycles. In 1930 he founded Robinson's Motor Cycle and Bicycle Depot , later renamed Robinson Motorcycles Limited . During this time he drove sidecar races and won championships. After business deteriorated, he founded a children's clothing company, Childswear Limited , in 1942 . In 1959 he sold the company to Ross and Glendining Ltd. and now devoted himself fully to politics.

Political career

Dove-Myer Robinson's political engagement began in the mid-1940s when the Auckland Metropolitan Drainage Board (responsible for sanitation) bought Browns Island , an island off the entrance to Waitemata Harbor , and planned to build a sewage treatment plant there. The fear among the population was that the sewage could pollute Waitemata Harbor. Robinson led the campaign successfully against the project and won a seat on the Auckland City Council in 1952 with the tailwind of his political commitment . Robinson subsequently formed a political force called United Independents , which in 1954 took over political control of the Auckland Metropolitan Drainage Board . For the metropolis of Auckland, he developed his own wastewater concept using the then still new process of oxidation in sewage treatment plants, thereby revolutionizing wastewater disposal in the megacity of Auckland.

In 1959 Robinson ran for the election of the mayor of the city of Auckland and won with a populist campaign against the incumbent of the Auckland Citizens 'and Ratepayers' Association . From then on, Dove-Myer Robinson was known as Robbie in Auckland and was politically active. In 1965 he not only lost his re-election for the third term, but also his wife at the time, who no longer supported his candidacy. In 1968 Robinson took back the office of mayor and won all re-elections up to his second defeat in 1980. He could no longer win the 1983 election either.

Dove-Myer Robinson died on August 14, 1989 in Auckland. He was a bronze statue in honor of the New Zealand sculptor 2003 Toby Twiss on the Aotea Square situated in Auckland.

Political offices

• 1952–1954 - Member of the Auckland Education Board and Auckland University Council
• 1952–1959 - Member of the Auckland City Council
• 1953–1955 - Chairman of the Auckland Metropolitan Drainage Board
• 1959–1965 - Mayor of Auckland (two terms)
• 1959–1961 - Chairman of the Auckland International Airport Committee
• 1959–1965 - Chairman of the Auckland Metropolitan Road Safety Committee
• 1959–1965 - Chairman of the Auckland Metropolitan Council
• 1960–1963 - Chairman of the Auckland Regional Authority Establishment Committee
• 1963–1965 - Chairman of the Auckland Regional Authority
• 1968–1980 - Mayor of Auckland (four terms)
• 1968–1980 - Chairman of the Auckland Metropolitan Council

Personal nobility

1970 Robinson was beaten to the Knight Bachelor and from then on carried the suffix "Sir".

literature

• John Edgar: Urban Legend: Sir Dove-Myer Robinsonh . Hachette, Sydney 2012, ISBN 978-1-86971-274-7 (English).
• Helga Neubauer: The New Zealand Book . NZ Visitor Publications Ltd, Nelson 2003, ISBN 978-1-877339-00-4 , pp. 1100 (English).

Web links

• John Edgar: Robinson, Dove-Myer. In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, accessed August 10, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} John Edgar: Robinson, Dove-Myer. In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, accessed August 10, 2014 .  
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Manuscripts Collection - Sir George Gray Special Collections Auckland Libraries. (PDF (154 kB)) Auckland Libraries, accessed on August 10, 2014 (English).  
3. ^ Aotea Square. Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA), accessed August 10, 2014 .