Article from The Waikato Times
Professor Jane Ritchie OBE, one of our early Leaders passed away on 21 April 2023.
Jane Ritchie was accredited as LLLNZ’s 8th Leader in 1968, a time when mothers wrote directly to one of the Founding mothers to be accredited. Around the time that Yvonne Foreman (formerly Procuta) was appointed by the States as the National Coordinator of LLL in New Zealand, Jane was appointed New Group Chairman (these days ALA). This is a role she held from 1969 to 1972 and a time of huge growth in the number of Leaders.
In 1973 she went to work at the University of Waikato as a postdoctoral researcher and was given the title of Professor there in 1995. Jane carried out research on a variety of subjects, including strategies for parenting children and co-authored Child Rearing Patterns in New Zealand among other publications. It was during her time at the university that Jane became one of our new Board of consultants.
The postdoctoral research that Professor Jane did on preschool education for tamariki Mori was a contributing factor in the founding of kōhanga reo. Professors Jane and James Ritchie developed strong relationships with members of the Maori community.
Professor Neil Quigley, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, claims that Professor Ritchie was also a significant contributor to the growth of the field of women’s studies. Because of Professor Ritchie’s efforts, Waikato University was the first university in New Zealand to provide a course on women and psychology for its students.
In 1989, Ritchie was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), for service to women, education and the community. In 2017, as part of the Royal Society of New Zealand’s 150th anniversary celebrations, a series of 150 biographies of women who had contributed to knowledge in New Zealand was published called “150 women in 150 words.” Jane was one of those women selected as part of the 150.
Mosaic article by Yvonne Foreman, adapted by Alison Stanton