Campbell Smith (playwright)
{{Short description|New Zealand playwright, poet and wood engraver (1925–2015)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2015}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Campbell Smith
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MNZM|size=100%}}
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| birth_name = Sydney Campbell Smith
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|02|25|df=y}}
| birth_place = Masterton, New Zealand
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|07|13|1925|02|25|df=y}}
| death_place = Tairua, New Zealand
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| spouse = {{marriage|Esme Isabel Dunbar|1953|2014|end=d.}}
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Sydney Campbell Smith {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MNZM|size=85%}} (25 February 1925 – 13 July 2015), generally known as Campbell Smith, was a New Zealand playwright, poet, wood engraver and arts administrator.
Biography
Born in Masterton in 1925, Smith was the son of Annie and Syd Smith, a signwriter.{{cite news | url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/70277540/hamilton-artist-campbell-smith-dies | title=Hamilton artist Campbell Smith dies | date=18 July 2015 | work=Waikato Times | accessdate=10 August 2015 | first=Roy | last=Burke}} He served a trade apprenticeship, and then studied at Canterbury University College, graduating with a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1952,{{cite web |url=http://shadowsoftime.co.nz/university22.html |title=NZ university graduates 1870–1961: Sl–Sz |date= |website= |publisher= |accessdate= 9 February 2015}} and then spent a year at Auckland Teachers' Training College. He married Esme Dunbar in 1953. After a period in London, the couple returned to New Zealand in 1956. Smith taught at Waihi College and then, from 1961, Fairfield College in Hamilton.
Smith was a wood engraver and printmaker, focusing on the life and culture of New Zealand. Subjects including rugby, farming, gum digging and Māori culture. His work is held in public collections, including those of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa{{cite web |url=http://www.playmarket.org.nz/playwrights/campbell-smith |title=Campbell Smith |date= |website= |publisher=Playmarket |accessdate=11 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924074514/http://www.playmarket.org.nz/playwrights/campbell-smith |archive-date=24 September 2015 |url-status=dead }} and Waikato Museum.{{cite web |url=http://www.waikato.ac.nz/news-events/media/2012/artist,-playwright-and-poet-to-receive-honorary-doctorate |title=Artist, playwright and poet to receive honorary doctorate |date=5 October 2012 |website= |publisher=University of Waikato |accessdate=11 August 2015}}
As a playwright, Smith wrote 24 plays, many of which are about notable New Zealanders, including Through Dark Clouds Shining about Ettie Rout; Mabel, based on the life of Mabel Howard; Frances Hodgkins: Painter about Frances Hodgkins; and This Green Land: Margot Philips - Painter, based on the life of Margot Philips.{{Cite news|url=https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/waikato-times/20090722/282033323196435|title=Play paints lifelike picture of city artist|last=Irvine|first=Denise|date=22 July 2009|work=Waikato Times|access-date=30 August 2018}} He was also a poet, and penned The Journey, a nativity story in verse, written in 1958 but not published until 2010, and which is illustrated with his own wood engravings.
Smith served as president of the New Zealand Federation of Film Societies between 1965 and 1966, president of the Waikato Society of Arts from 1965 to 1967 and director of the Waikato Art Gallery from 1971.
Smith was made a life member of the Waikato Society of Arts in 1994. In the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the arts,{{cite web |url=https://dpmc.govt.nz/publications/queens-birthday-honours-list-2003 |title=Queen's Birthday honours list 2003 |date=2 June 2003 |publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet |accessdate=19 June 2020}} and in 2012 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Waikato.{{cite web | url=http://calendar.waikato.ac.nz/officershonoursstaff/doctors.html | title=Honorary Doctors of the University of Waikato | publisher=University of Waikato | accessdate=10 August 2015 | archive-date=6 April 2001 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010406115418/http://calendar.waikato.ac.nz/officershonoursstaff/doctors.html | url-status=dead }}
He died at Tairua on 13 July 2015.
References
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Category:People from Masterton
Category:University of Canterbury alumni
Category:New Zealand schoolteachers
Category:Directors of museums in New Zealand
Category:20th-century New Zealand dramatists and playwrights
Category:New Zealand male poets
Category:New Zealand engravers
Category:Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit
Category:University of Waikato alumni
Category:20th-century New Zealand poets
Category:20th-century New Zealand male writers