Cover image for Brian Mcpherson
Agency:
Brian Mcpherson
Agency Number:
Start Date:
01 Jan 1927
End Date:
21 Jul 2007
Description:
Brian McPherson was born in Dunedin, New Zealand on the 8 Jan 1927. After schooling he trained as a cabinet maker with Haywood's North-End Furnishing Co. Ltd, Dunedin from 1942 which led to his appointment to the Maintenance Staff at the University of Otago. There he used his skills in the preparation of museum specimens in the Department of Pathology. He resigned in June 1966 when Roland (Roly) Rodda was appointed Foundation Professor of Pathology at the University of Tasmania and invited him to join him as a Technical Officer to establish the Museum of Pathology. Later known as the Rodda Museum of Pathology. McPherson became the University of Tasmania Pathology Museum Curator, a position he held until his retirement in 1991. Brian McPherson had wide cultural and social interests including architectural history, art, antiques and book collecting. A particular interest in Tasmanian history, its people and architecture led him to create scrapbooks of local newspaper cuttings and ephemera relating to these subjects. On 22 Nov 1998 he wrote "... my bent is houses and their history, architects and how the owners lived in them. I have some sixty arch-lever file scrap books of newspaper cuttings about houses etc in my study now. I started this interest in about 1946, and still have kept it up going". In New Zealand he was a member of the New Zealand Institute of Science Technicians; the New Zealand Army - 2 RECCE SQN (NZ Scots) from 1959 to 1966; a Friend of the Turnbull Library, Wellington from 1958; a Committee member and later President(1965) of the Dickens Fellowship (Dunedin Branch); and the Clan McPherson - Otago Branch, founded by him in the 1950's. In Tasmania he was a member of the Tasmanian branch of the National Trust of Australia; the Tasmanian Historical Research Association; the North West Bay Country Golf Club at Kingston (Hobart), the St Andrew's Society, Hobart and the Commercial Traveller's Association of Tasmania from 1966. His last residential address was "Innkirk" 213 Davey Street, South Hobart. He died in Hobart on the 20 July 2007.
Information Sources:
Notes by H. Konrad Muller, Professor Emeritus of Pathology, University of Tasmania - division of Pathology, 30 July 2007; Personal papers of Brian McPherson; Death notice, Mercury newspaper, July 21 2007.