Profiling Timaru-born Otago University Law Dean Professor Mark Henaghan on his life outside law is figuring where to start, what to include, what to leave out and what to get away with…

Mark was offered a teaching fellowship at Otago University shortly after his graduation and worked his way up academe to his appointment as Dean of Law in 1999.

Name

Raymond Mark (Mark) Henaghan

Born

Timaru. 

Age

62. 

Entry to law

Graduated BA, LLB(Hons) from Otago University in 1977, and quickly became a teaching fellow. "I might still be a barrister; it's not too late..." 

Workplace

Dean of the Faculty of Law at Otago University. 

Speciality area

Family law relating to children, law regarding the human genome and judiciary law.

He didn't go to his 1977 graduation ceremony.

"I was busy working in the Pareora freezing works, something students did in those days along with truck driving and working in wool and grain stores to earn cash to support ourselves through university…"

"I certainly didn't plan to be an academic..."

Born into an Irish Catholic home in Timaru, Mark's father's side came from County Mayo and his mother's side from County Clare.

"My father's father's father was a lighthouse keeper at Cape Saunders on Otago Peninsula who loved reading… Two of his children died young and their graves are there…

"His son became a dentist, as did my father – who moved his practice from Dunedin to Timaru - and his brother…

"Mum came from a more working class background… The first time she saw dad he was being carried out of the Dunedin Town Hall having had too good a time at dancing… Apparently she swore she'd never go out with a bloke like that…"

Mark's dad died at 51 of a heart attack near the Gleniti golf course while taking part in Timaru's first fun run.

"I was taught by tough but kind nuns at Sacred Heart school in Timaru – Sister Sebastian and Sister Xavier I remember well… At St Pat's (now Roncalli College) I was an altar boy at 6am Mass and always had to pour I bit more wine for the priest…"

Mark returned to Dunedin in 1972 to take up lodgings in University College (UniCol).

"It was the only residence that had boys and girls together… I had not seen many girls close up and UniCol was described by Brian Edwards as a place of sin and iniquity…

"I had a great room at the back of the basement right by the carpark… There was no alcohol after 9 and no visitors after 10, so I had people coming in and out my window all the time…

 "I was kind of a bootlegger and a pimp in my first year…"

Then he met Aimy, a studious Vietnamese student who would become his wife.

"Aimy has a PhD in chemistry and a BCom… She was the best behaved student in the hall, she studied well and I only met her when I went to the library…

"At the end of my first year I took her to dinner at the Cherry Court Lodge… Spent $8 on dinner and had 50 cents to get back to Timaru…

"After I met Aimy my performance at university improved dramatically and I have to credit her for anywhere I've got in life…"

Daughter Misha, an insurance lawyer and son Ryan, a commercial lawyer, both turned up in Mark's first year teaching class.

"When I was 12 I really thought I was going to be a priest… One of the Brothers said I was destined to be a priest and it didn't look too bad a life…

"At school I was involved in debating, speaking, drama and sport, enjoyed arguing and asking questions… I always challenged the status quo and when I was elected head prefect at St Pat's I was proud of never reporting any boys for anything…

"I was always interested in criminal law, watched crime shows on TV and thought being a criminal lawyer could be helpful to those less fortunate…

"I certainly didn't plan to be an academic… I still see myself as out there being a criminal lawyer, but haven't quite got there… I can see UniCol out my window so I've only moved about 50 metres from when I first started…"

Enjoying preparing for classes and seeing students improve, Mark worked his way through the law faculty to his appointment as Dean in 1999.

A Hollywood career passed him by, despite his cameo role as an "eccentric academic character" in 1999 low-budget cult film Scarfies.

[Made on a $78,000 budget, Scarfies – which did well at the box office and was described in one review as the "most outstandingly entertaining New Zealand film for years" - follows the odd goings on around five student flatters in Dunedin.]

"I had a brief role, wore my old St Pat's tie from school, and got my Latin lines round the wrong way but no-one noticed…

"There's a funny story with that… I was at Heathrow airport a few years ago with a couple of other Kiwis and we were watching Scarfies, along with an American guy in a wee baseball cap…

"It was Dustin Hoffman and I was chatting away to him… He was flying Air New Zealand and none of his movies were showing on board but Scarfies was… This was my finest moment…"

A big film fan, Mark can often be found in a near-deserted cinema on a Saturday morning chomping on a packet of Jaffas, crisps and icecream.

"There's something about going to movies during the day – you have your intellectual stimulation and still come out and do things…

"I like documentaries, good comedies, French relationship films and always go to James Bond… Sean Connery had it all and set the standard…

"There's not a lot on TV worth watching…I like Boston Legal and Mrs Brown's Boys and watch a bit of sport… There's no good journalism and movies on TV are not right without the big screen…"

A surfer from his Timaru days with sports shop owner and old mate Kevin Leary, he's more into body surfing – which he prefers doing at Bondi rather than at St Clair where he lives which is too cold to body surf without a wet suit. "I've always found the beach a wonderful place to replenish and renew…"

He skips for 20 minutes every morning to keep fit and takes his skipping rope everywhere he goes.

"I was in a hotel in Paris and people complained about the bouncing noise on the floor from my skipping…"

A former competitive marathon and track runner he rides a bike and plays social rugby for the law faculty – "usually about 15 minutes as halfback and sometimes against some of my student…"

A fan of The Hollies and Freddie Mercury, he learned the piano with the nuns but didn't practise, preferring to kick a football.

"The next person after me for lessons did practise - he was Michael Houston (the acclaimed concert pianist).

"When it came to music exams I could hear the rosary beads clicking like mad when I was trying to play…

"My dad played the piano every day at lunchtime and I have one but don't play it… At school we had a group with guitars and stuff and all I had were the maracas - it doesn't take too much to play them…

"My singing career was knocked on the head when I was five and turned up at a school concert in the wrong costume… I was stuck in the back row and told to mouth the words…

"My first car was a Humber 80… I had an old BMW once which cost a lot to keep going and now drive a Honda Euro…"

"Muhammad Ali is a great hero of mine so I would have him round for dinner, along with St Francis of Assisi ('one of the few to challenge the Catholic church'), Martin Luther King ('I have his I Have a Dream speech on my wall'), Oscar Wilde ('He said there are two great tragedies in life: not having what you want and having what you want'), Joan Rivers, who would take the piss out of everything, and Mother Mary Aubert, founder of the Sisters of Compassion…

"Mother Aubert would keep us in line if we go too far out and she would also make sure we paid for the meal because she was very good with money…

"In an alternative career I think I would go to the bar and do criminal and family law…

"It's where the rubber hits the road and where people are at their most vulnerable… It's a tough game and the lawyers in those areas are good characters…

"And I think we should play music in court to cheer people up…"

Footnote: This profile is an edited extract from a delightful 60-minute chat with Professor Henaghan.

Timaru-based Jock Anderson has been writing and commenting on New Zealand lawyers and New Zealand's courts for most of his career in journalism. Contact Jock at jockanderson123@gmail.com.