PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

By Professor Ron Crocombe

RAROTONGA, Cook Islands (Cook Islands News, July 25) – Sir Tom Davis was a classic Renaissance Man with achievements across a wide spectrum of activities in various countries.

[PIR editor’s note: Davis, widely known in the Pacific as ‘Papa Tom’, died at the age of 90 earlier this week. ]

Last month a group of Canadian university students was in Rarotonga for a summer school. One of them had read about Sir Tom and they wanted to know more. So I phoned and he said, "Bring them out". He stood for an hour lecturing them on issues they raised - space medicine, Cook Islands politics, design features of Polynesian canoes, and Pacific regionalism. They were fascinated.

When he was a boy there was no high school here so from 12 years old he was educated first at Kings College and then at Otago University, where he graduated as a doctor in 1943. After practicing in New Zealand, he returned to Rarotonga in 1945. Apart from nine months on a post-graduate course in tropical medicine and hygiene at the University of Sydney, he remained in Rarotonga until 1952.

He was extremely popular both for his medical work and his community participation. I remember one of the many vibrant farewell parties for him and his family before they departed for Harvard. After completing his studies in 1954, he joined the research staff of Harvard University and was involved in his favourite topic, the effects of the external environment on the human body. That involved laboratory research and applied research in Alaska, South America, the Himalayas in India, and in the USA space programme. He remained in medical research consulting until his return to Rarotonga in 1971 to enter the political arena.

In 1977 the Council of the University of the South Pacific invited him to become vice-chancellor. Being still in opposition, he was keen to accept, but Premier Albert Henry heard of it and called a snap election, castigating Tom as a traitor and an opportunist, forsaking his country. It was a mishmash of lies and misrepresentation that is sadly not uncommon in politics, but Tom felt he had to stay and fight that battle so he declined the offer to lead the university - and became premier and then the first prime minister.

During his medical years he authored or co-authored 25 scientific reports and articles that were published in international journals. His first non-scientific book Doctor to the Islands by him and his wife Lydia, was first published in 1954 and reprinted many times in USA, UK, France, Sweden and New Zealand. Their novel Makutu (Witchcraft) was published in 1960. His autobiography Island Boy was published in 1992, followed by his historical novel Vaka - which has been turned into a very successful dramatic performance.

Cook Islands News: http://www.cinews.co.ck/index.htm

Copyright © 2005 Cook Islands News. All Rights Reserved