Remembering Virginia Grainer
Virginia Grainer, the first woman to be Dean of Te Kauhanganui Tātai Ture, has died.
Virginia started a law degree at Victoria University as the mother of three young children. She started lecturing at the Law School in 1992 and worked her way up the ranks from Assistant Lecturer to Senior Lecturer, then Dean of Students and Deputy Dean. Virginia was appointed to Acting Dean of the Faculty for a year in April 2000 and retired in 2010.
Virginia passed away peacefully on 6 September 2024, following a brief illness. She was the much-loved wife of fellow Victoria law lecturer Bob Dugan (who sadly also died just months after his wife), the dearly beloved mother of Hannah, Jacob, and Chrissy, and a treasured grandmother, stepmother, and step-grandmother.
Early in her career Virginia practised law as a solicitor in private practice and as an investigating officer in the Office of the Ombudsman. As an academic she published on a wide range of topics—she co-authored research with her husband Bob about family business interests under the matrimonial property and companies legislation. She also published research about family protection, consumer law, and succession law.
Outside of work, Virginia had a long involvement with the Laura Fergusson Trust as a trustee and chair of its clinical advisory committee. The Laura Fergusson Trust is a charity that provides residential, rehabilitation, respite, and recreational services for adults with physical or neurological impairments. This work was very important to her—she is quoted on the charity’s website: “As trustees we must strive to have the vision, courage and wisdom to enable LFT with its successive generations of dedicated staff to continue to assist the members of the LFT community to live their best lives, despite the myriad of challenges they face on a daily basis … and as all of us aspire, to have their share of moments of joy!”
Professor Geoff McLay, Dean of the Faculty of Law, says Virginia’s passing has been keenly felt among her former colleagues and many friends at Te Herenga Waka.
“Virginia believed deeply that the Law School should be a place for everyone, and worked so hard to achieve that,” he says. “But she was also the kindest of colleagues, and we owe her a lot personally, as do generations of students.”
Professor Geoff McLay