[2] He was educated at Morrinsville District High School, and went on to study zoology at Auckland University College, graduating with the degree of MSc with first-class honours in 1948.
[4] On his return from London in the early 1960s,[5] he became the first person to be appointed to the chair of the School of Zoology and Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland,[4] a position he held from 1959 to 1988.
"[1] In his 1984 book Redeeming Creation[10] he acknowledged the influence of the French palaeontologist Teilhard de Chardin in forming the teleological view he expounded in his academic life.
[1] He led the conservation movement to a series of victories in the 1970s and 1980s, which saved the last of New Zealand's mainland native forests, Pureora, Whirinaki, Waitututu and South Westland from logging.
[6] He served on the Auckland Regional Authority from 1971 to 1974 for Takapuna, losing his re-election bid after switching his party affiliation to Labour.