High Court Judge John Rabone died in Timaru Hospital late last month. He had been ill since suffering a heart attack earlier that month while on circuit in Timaru.

Justice Rabone had been a District Court judge in the Wellington region until October 1994 when he was appointed to the High Court, based in Christchurch.

Born in Wanganui, he grew up in Hamilton, and graduated from Victoria University in 1962 with a law degree and a masters in law the following year.

He was a partner in Wellington law firm Sladden Stuart Joseph and Lawrence and was employed as a Crown Counsel at the Crown Law Office between 1968 and 1977. Between 1970 and 1977 he became a partner in the Wellington firm of Watts and Patterson.

In 1983 he was appointed to the bench of the District Court and was on the Law Commission Advisory Committee.

He is survived by his wife, and a daughter and son aged 21 and 20.

This obituary was first published in LawTalk 436, 12 June 1995, page 5.