First 'doctor of commerce' honoured

Graeme Marsh.
Graeme Marsh.
The University of Otago will confer its first honorary doctor of commerce degree on retired Dunedin business leader and philanthropist Graeme Marsh today.

Mr Marsh will receive the honorary doctorate at a 1pm graduation ceremony in the Dunedin Town Hall today.

Dunedin-born and educated, Mr Marsh attended Otago Boys' High School and graduated from Otago with a bachelor of commerce in accountancy in 1963.

He later became chairman of the Otago Graduates' Association and, in 1991, was appointed to the university council.

He served for more than a decade, including as a member of the university investment committee for much of that time.

Vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne said Mr Marsh was a fitting recipient of Otago's first honorary doctor of commerce degree.

Mr Marsh was a highly successful Otago graduate who had pursued a long and award-winning business career.

He had shared his ''business acumen and governance expertise'' with the university through his service on the university council, she said.

Various contributions by Mr Marsh and his wife Eunice reflected the values that the University of Otago aimed to ''encourage in its alumni'', Prof Hayne said.

A study centre in Castle St, which opened in 2013 on the site of the former Gardens Tavern, is named after the Marsh family.

Mr Marsh was a director of the Dunedin-based firm Scott Technology for 38 years, serving 32 of those as chairman, before he retired from that role in 2007.

In 1995, he was awarded a CBE for services to export and the community.

That year he was named Deloitte Management Executive of the Year, university officials said.

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