5 days ago
Obituary: a life with three full courses
NANCY CARR
In an era when a woman's place in the world was seen to be at the heart of a household, Nancy Joy Carr smashed those perceptions.
She did it by forging a career, perhaps ironically, as an academic lecturer and researcher at the University of Otago School of Home Science.
To her, it made sense, because it was there that she was able to inspire the hearts and minds of many generations of young women, and show them they could be more.
Nancy was many things to many different people — a family woman, a friend, an academic, a leader, an adviser, a diplomat and an advocate.
She wore a lot of hats, and she wore them well — most notably as a lecturer in community and family studies and food sciences, a researcher in experimental foods and recipes and a producer of popular cook books.
Born in Invercargill on February 7, 1936, to Jack and Gladys Deal, Nancy was the youngest of five children.
Later, the family moved to the Hutt Valley, near Wellington, and she went to Hutt Valley High School. When she finished school, she studied at the University of Otago School of Home Science.
While there, she lived at Studholme College and relished working in the kitchen, because it gave her the chance to learn about catering.
She excelled in the clothing and food science papers — particularly clothing. She often made beautiful dresses to wear for dance nights. It was at one of those dance nights at Otago, that she met chemistry student and future husband Melville Carr, and the couple became very close.
When Nancy graduated with her bachelor of home science degree in 1958, she was awarded the Jessie Kinder Prize for the best graduate. There were mixed emotions about the achievement, because it was then that she and Melville had to begin a long-distance relationship.
He needed to continue his postgraduate studies at Otago, while she needed to go to Auckland Teachers' College for a year, to study for a certificate in secondary education.
In 1959, Nancy's working life started as a science teacher at Hutt Valley High School, and at the start of 1960, she and Melville were reunited and married in the Hutt Valley. They then spent 1960 both lecturing at Otago.
Just when the newly married couple seemed to be settling down to their new life together, Melville won a Fulbright Scholarship in 1962, so they upped sticks and moved to London, where
Nancy landed a job at UniLever's Food and Cookery Centre as head of the creative department, compiling and testing recipes.
She became very skilled at food photography, preparing editorials and display advertisements for magazines and television. Learning how to make a pavlova without cracks was one of many important skills she developed there.
Eighteen months later, Melville had completed his scholarship, and the duo moved again, this time to the United States, where Nancy pursued her dream of extending her education. She studied for a bachelor of economics in foods and nutrition at Penn State University, while working as a graduate assistant in food and nutrition research.
Having completed the majority of a third degree, the couple moved back to Dunedin in 1965, where both took up lectureships — Nancy in food science at the University of Otago School of Home Science, and Melville in the chemistry department.
She lectured on various courses, including home management, sociology of the family, consumer studies, community and family studies and experimental foods.
Their first child, Stephen, was born in 1968, and while that may have ended the academic careers of many women of that era, six-month-old Stephen was often parked in a pram at the front of a lecture theatre while she gave lectures.
Nancy was a strong, determined woman who knew how to use diplomacy to make a difference. One of her greatest passions was equality for women.
She always dressed well, and while she loved beautiful dresses and skirts (many of which she made herself), she often wore trousers too, even when it was not common for women.
Nancy also conducted a lot of research projects at the university, many of which were invariably connected to her personal interests.
In response to rising food prices in 1980, she had her management in family living students conduct a pilot study of Dunedin households, to do with budgeting, shopping, home production and preservation of food, family meals and making ends meet.
She found that buying at supermarkets was taking over from local grocers and greengrocers; bottling and freezing produce was still very common; vegetable growing was at 66%; and most knew how to make ends meet.
In 1981, she published the results of another survey investigating the involvement of New Zealand men in homemaking tasks, which concluded that men did tasks traditionally seen as male responsibilities, like taking out the rubbish, mowing lawns and cleaning the car. They contributed to dishwashing and childcare, but their participation in washing and ironing clothes, vacuuming and cooking meals was "quite low".
Nancy suggested New Zealand advertising agencies should pay more attention to males in their consumer advertising, rather than reinforcing stereotypes.
Alongside her lecturing and research, Nancy developed and tested recipes and wrote four cookbooks in the 1970s and 1980s, titled Lively Lunches , for the Dunedin Lions Club and New Zealand Plunket Society; Eating for Health , for the Heart Foundation; Laurenson's Cookbook ; and Winning Ways with Chocolate , for Cadbury's.
Her books often gave readers a few tricks of the trade, such as brushing food with oil or sugar syrup so it would glisten and using cream cheese instead of whipped cream for piping because it would not collapse so easily.
Her son Stephen said coming home from school during that chapter in her life was "like stepping into heaven".
"The kitchen would be full of chocolate desserts, biscuits, cakes — and the dining room would be set up for a photo shoot.
"When I came through the door, Mum would catch the look on my face and quickly steer me toward the things that had already been photographed, so I could sample them.
"Growing up, we also had all sorts of more experimental food at home, like sheep's brain fritters."
At the same time, she was very invested in her children's education. She worked on school fairs, served as president of the Māori Hill Playcentre committee, chaired the Columba College Parents' Association and was a member of the Columba College Board of Governors and house committees.
Nancy loved hosting family and friends for parties at home, and there was always a feast of different dishes for them to try. When presenting a dish, she was often heard to say, "this is an experiment", but everyone loved her dishes and no-one ever got sick.
Eating out was another way she explored food. She became a NZ Beef and Lamb judge, frequently travelling "undercover" with Melville to restaurants, to sample and evaluate beef and lamb dishes.
Later in her career, Nancy shifted into community and family studies lecturing, and consumer rights also became a big part of her life.
She was a member of many food and consumer organisations, including the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology; the Consumers' Institute Dunedin District committee; the Home Science Alumnae national executive (1977-82) and vice-president and associate editor (1979-82); the New Zealand Standards Association Meat Grades project chairwoman (1986-87); a Dunedin Budget Advisory committee member (1985-92); and was the Ministry of Consumer Affairs representative on the Otago District Legal Services committee (1992).
She also represented the University of Otago's School of Home Science at International Federation of Home Economics quadrennial conferences in 1982, 1984, 1988 and 1992, and was on its business committee for a time in the 1990s.
One of her greatest honours came in 1993, when she was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal, recognising her contribution to women's rights in New Zealand — something she was very proud of.
After 36 years, Nancy retired from the University of Otago in 1996, bringing to an end a remarkable career.
Having more spare time on her hands, she was able to focus on another passion in her life — Knox Church. She joined the church in 1955 and was actively involved in the life of the congregation for more than 63 years. Her family was immersed in church activities, and she participated in the Young Wives' Group activities in the 1980s.
However, it was following her retirement from the university that she had the time to take on more significant church responsibilities. In 2010, Knox Church celebrated its 150th anniversary, and a book published at that time recorded several acknowledgements of Nancy's important contribution to Knox's work.
This included serving as envelope secretary (1998-2011), serving on the finance committee and becoming a member of the Deacon's Court and the project committee.
Nancy was also an avid traveller and often spent long periods on paths less travelled by tourists — like Alaska, Antarctica, Iceland and across Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
She was a natural public speaker and often gave talks for groups like the Friends of the Dunedin Public Library, sharing her travel tales.
Later on, when travel became harder, she kept active through groups like the Cargill Combined Probus Club, and even served a term as president.
Above all, Nancy was an incredibly dedicated woman.
She was always cheerful and compassionate, and all of her work demonstrated her commitment to the values of her home science degrees, which aimed to improve living standards for all.
Nancy died on April 9, 2025, peacefully at Summerset at Bishops Court, in Dunedin, aged 89.
She is survived by Melville, son and daughter-in-law Stephen and Sara, daughter and son-in-law Joanne and Andrew Robertson and her five grandchildren. — John Lewis
