Prof Skegg finishes at the university the end of the month and yesterday it was his final council meeting, after a tenure of almost eight years in the chief executive-equivalent role.
Chancellor John Ward hailed Prof Skegg for his lengthy relationship with the University of Otago and the many "eminent" positions, in which he had excelled.
"You will go down in the annals of this university's history as one its foremost contributors," Mr Ward said.
Prof Skegg has spent most of his distinguished career at the University of Otago and has been one of its most eminent academics, researchers, and teachers, Mr Ward said.
Born and raised in Auckland, Prof Skegg attended the private secondary school King's College.
He moved south to study medicine at Otago and also travelled on exchange to Harvard University, before he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University.
Prof Skegg returned to Otago in 1980, when he was appointed as the departmental chair in Preventive and Social Medicine, aged 32.
He was awarded an OBE in 1990 and was knighted in 2009.
University council members gave Prof Skegg a standing ovation at the end of the open session of the meeting.
Prof Skegg will be replaced by the University's deputy vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne, next month.
