Arthur Francis Small (26 February 1946 – 5 March 2021) was a New Zealand engineer and scouting leader. He served as the national president of Scouting New Zealand, as well as the vice-chairman of the Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Committee.

Early life

Small was born in 1946, He studied civil engineering at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

, completing a Master of Engineering degree in 1969, and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1971. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Arved Raudkivi, was titled ''Hydroelastic excitation of cylinders''.

Career

Joining the

New Zealand Railways Department The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR (New Zealand Government Railways) and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining Rail transport in New Zealand, New Zealand's railway infrastruc ...

in 1964, Small rose to become managing director of New Zealand Rail in 1990 and its successor,

Tranz Rail Tranz Rail, formally Tranz Rail Holdings Limited (New Zealand Rail Limited until 1995), was the main Rail transport in New Zealand, rail operator in New Zealand from 1991 until it was purchased by Toll Holdings in 2003. History The New Zealand ...

. He retired from Tranz Rail in 2000 and was replaced, as managing director, by Michael Beard in May of that year. Small was then vice-chairman for some time. For his services to the transport industry and the community, he was appointed a

Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit () is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ...

in the

2000 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2000 for the United Kingdom and New Zealand were announced on 31 December 1999, to celebrate the year passed and mark the beginning of 2000. The ''Honours list'' is a list of people who have been awarded one of the various or ...

. In 1999, Small was appointed by the National Government as one of three people on the high-profile

INCIS INCIS was the name of the Integrated National Crime Information System designed to provide information to the New Zealand Police in the 1990s, but which was abandoned in 1999. Although the project was abandoned parts of its hardware and software ...

inquiry into the failed computer system that had been ordered by New Zealand Police in the 1990s. Early in 2000 after a change to the Labour Government, the other two members were dispensed with and Small conducted the enquiry by himself. Small's report on INCIS was published in November 2000. Small was a Distinguished Fellow of the

Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Engineering New Zealand Te Ao Rangahau (ENZ; previously the New Zealand Institution of Engineers – NZIE and then Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand – IPENZ) is a not-for-profit professional body that promotes the integrity ...

(IPENZ) and was the group's president in 1996–97. In 2013, he received an individual award from the Railway Technical Society of Australasia for outstanding service to New Zealand's rail industry. In 2015, he founded the Francis Small Scholarship at the University of Auckland, available to civil, electrical, mechanical or chemical engineering students. In 1999, Small was awarded the 278th

Bronze Wolf The Bronze Wolf Award is an award presented by the World Organization of the Scout Movement for outstanding service by an individual to the Scout Movement. Just over 400 people have received the Bronze Wolf since its creation in 1935. WOSM has r ...

, the only distinction of the

World Organization of the Scout Movement The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM ) is the largest and, after the Order of World Scouts (formed in 1911), is the second-oldest international organization in the Scout Movement, having been established in 1922. It has 176 members. ...

, awarded by the World Scout Committee for exceptional services to world scouting. Small died in

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 ...

on 5 March 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Small, Francis 1946 births 2021 deaths University of Auckland alumni Scouting and Guiding in New Zealand Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit Recipients of the Bronze Wolf Award New Zealand civil engineers New Zealand people in rail transport 20th-century New Zealand engineers People from Palmerston North