Denis Bazeley Gordon McLean (18 August 1930 – 30 March 2011) was a New Zealand diplomat, academic, author and civil servant.

Early life, family and education

McLean was born in Napier. He was the eldest son of Gordon McLean, a newspaper editor, and Ruahine Smith. His family later lived in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

and

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

. McLean attended Nelson College from 1944 to 1948,''Nelson College Old Boys' Register, 1856–2006'', 6th edition earned a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

with first-class honours in geology at Victoria University College, and won a Senior Scholarship in 1953 and a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

to the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in 1954. At

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

, he studied politics, philosophy and economics. He played

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

at both Victoria and Oxford Universities, and was a member of the Victoria team that won the Jubilee Cup three times in the early 1950s. In early 1958, McLean married Anne Davidson in Oxford, and the couple went on to have three children.

Career

After graduating from Oxford, McLean joined the New Zealand Department of External Affairs in 1957. He was posted to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

(1960–63), Paris (1963–66), Kuala Lumpur (1966–68) and London (1972–77), where he studied at the

Royal College of Defence Studies The Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) instructs the most promising senior officers of the British Armed Forces, His Majesty's Diplomatic Service and Civil Service in national defence and international security matters at the highest leve ...

and was deputy high commissioner. He was Secretary of Defence from 1979 to 1988 and ambassador to the United States from 1991 to 1994. In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours, McLean was appointed a

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George I ...

. After he retired from government service in 1995, McLean was appointed the Joan and James Warburg Chair of International Relations at Simmons College in Boston. His distinguished career as a public servant, writer, historian and commentator on international relations also led him to be a visiting fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in Canberra, the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) or Wilson Center is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topi ...

, the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...

, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He also served for several years on the New Zealand Press Council.

Works

McLean wrote three books: ''The Long Pathway, Te Araroa'' (1986), about walking the east coast of the North Island with his family; ''The Prickly Pair'' (2003), on Australia-New Zealand relations; and ''Howard Kippenberger: Dauntless Spirit'' (2008), a biography of the military commander Sir Howard Kippenberger. The common theme underlying the apparent diversity of McLean's writing was a fascination with New Zealand's evolving national identity.

Death

McLean died on 30 March 2011 at his home in Wellington.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLean, Denis 1930 births 2011 deaths New Zealand Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Ambassadors of New Zealand to the United States New Zealand public servants People educated at Nelson College Victoria University of Wellington alumni Alumni of University College, Oxford New Zealand academics Simmons University faculty New Zealand Rhodes Scholars People from Napier, New Zealand People from Wellington City