{"id":835,"date":"2021-05-23T15:27:57","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T05:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nz\/?post_type=article&p=835"},"modified":"2021-05-24T09:55:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T23:55:03","slug":"meet-a-member","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nz\/article\/meet-a-member\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet a Member"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"by Murray Lopdell-Lawrence Bequests Manager\u00a0at\u00a0University of Otago\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Coming Full Circle \u2013 A Kiwi\u2019s Journey Home!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>In August 2019, Murray Lopdell-Lawrence finished his OE.<\/p>\n

He was a little delayed \u2013 it took him some 30 years to complete!! And he brought back with him a wife he \u2018picked up\u2019 along the way.<\/p>\n

Murray does admit that many times these past months he has felt like Rip Van Winkle \u2013 waking up after 30 years!!\u00a0 He has returned to a New Zealand that is different. Some of the changes are dramatic, others incremental; often surprising. \u00a0Murray and his wife are enjoying discovering, learning, and adapting to their new life as they reunite with family, forge new friendships, travel and discover new sights, and explore the NZ music scene.<\/p>\n

Murray moved back to take up the newly formed position in the Development and Alumni Office at the University of Otago \u2013 Bequest Manager.\u00a0 There have been bequests left to the university since its beginning, but he is the first fulltime person devoted to building a bequest program.\u00a0 Otago founded the first university in NZ, in 1869, and it is believed that the first bequest was left by one of the first professors who died tragically young during a tramping expedition in 1888.\u00a0 Murray is enjoying setting up this new position, rejuvenating the program, and building on its history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Born and bred in New Zealand, in the north island, Murray left for his OE and now has returned with extensive advancement experience in tertiary education, private school education, and the performing arts.\u00a0 Trained as a teacher in New Zealand, Murray taught in England and the USA., and went on to be head of school for four private schools in four different states throughout the USA.\u00a0 In these latter positions, he had to devote about 40-60% of his time to fundraising and advancement work.\u00a0 And since leaving his last headship, he has been working fulltime in advancement.\u00a0 Immediately before returning to NZ, he held the same position as he now occupies here at Otago with the Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prior to Princeton Seminary he served as Vice President for Advancement at American Boychoir School, Princeton, New Jersey. \u00a0Additional arts administrative background includes working for touring performing arts organizations such as Music Federation NZ (now Chamber Music New Zealand) and the San Francisco Opera Center.<\/p>\n

Through his work in education and the arts, Murray has successfully supervised a wide variety of advancement and development activities, that include cultivation, solicitation, annual appeals, major giving, planned giving, capital campaigns, building endowment, event planning, marketing, branding, publications, and strategic planning.\u00a0 Planned giving, i.e. bequests, became a specialty.<\/p>\n

Murray is enjoying being back in God\u2019s Own<\/em>, exploring the south – the land of his mother\u2019s upbringing. Her grandfather had settled in Southland with a large family that spread all over Otago and Southland, before heading north.\u00a0 There is a lot of family lore here in the south and Murray is eagerly exploring and recording it. \u00a0But Murray acknowledges that he returned at a good time.\u00a0 He feels lucky to have escaped the political and social madness. And how lucky to have been here in New Zealand during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

And so, this Kiwi is back. \u00a0Murray has come full circle \u2013 he finally returned home.\u00a0 His OE is over!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Murray Lopdell-Lawrence Bequests Manager\u00a0at\u00a0University of Otago\u00a0 Coming Full Circle \u2013 A Kiwi\u2019s Journey Home! \u00a0In August 2019, Murray Lopdell-Lawrence finished his OE. He was a little delayed \u2013 it took him some 30 years to complete!! And he brought back with him a wife he \u2018picked up\u2019 along the way. Murray does admit that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","class_list":["post-835","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebuzz.net.au\/educateplus-nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}