Ian Prior (doctor)

Ian Ambury Miller Prior ONZM (16 October 1923 – 17 February 2009) was a New Zealand doctor, epidemiologist, environmental campaigner and arts patron.

[1] He was active in a number of environmental campaigns including the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and was well known for his support of the arts, in particular the Wellington Sculpture Trust.

1914), a noted logician and philosopher, from Norman's first marriage to Elizabeth (née Teague),[3] an older sister Elaine and a younger brother Owen, who followed his father into the Masterton general practice.

[6]: 100–101 Prior's career in epidemiology was sparked by a report in 1960 into the incidence of coronary disease, diabetes and hypertension in Māori people and the questions this raised about lifestyle and the wider causes of illness.

[7] He extended his interest in Māori health to other Pacific peoples, in particular finding out how modernisation and changes in diet contributed to hypertension, diabetes and obesity.

[8] His first epidemiological study in the Pacific was in Pukapuka in the northern Cook Islands in 1964 where his team found that diabetes was uncommon and that blood pressure and weight did not increase with age.

[8] It was found that the islanders who remained were healthier; those in New Zealand gained weight, had elevated blood pressure and an increase in rates of asthma, gout and diabetes.

[6]: 100–101 [9][10][11] In the 1960s and 1970s, Prior became involved in and chaired the campaign to prevent the raising of Lake Manapouri to provide electricity for an aluminium smelter at Tiwai Point.

[10] Prior was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to medicine and the environment.

She was the great-granddaughter of early New Zealand businessman Bendix Hallenstein, and her family were supporters of arts and culture and philanthropy.