Sir Howard Morrison: ‘Rotorua’s Favourite Son’

Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Maniapoto

Sir Howard Morrison was born in 1935 in Rotorua. As he grew up, he spent much of his time around performers. While still at secondary school, firstly at Te Aute College and then Rotorua Boys’ High, he performed in cultural groups, concert parties and show bands.

In 1955, Sir Howard formed singing groups to perform at the local-rugby-club socials. In 1956, he went to Australia, as a member of the Aotearoa Concert Party, where he gained more experience. He then formed the Ōhinemutu Quartet with his cousin John, brother Laurie and Gerry Merito.

The quartet changed its name to the Howard Morrison Quartet and soon won a recording contract. The group became well-known for their smooth harmony, and cheeky and humorous style of entertaining. These qualities set them apart from their contemporaries and they became very popular.

Following great success and extensive touring, the Howard Morrison Quartet broke up. Sir Howard then set out on a very successful career as a solo entertainer. He had fans all over the world and travelled a great deal to perform for them.

The performance he is probably best known for is his rendition of ‘How Great Thou Art / Whakaaria Mai’, which he performed for a television special in 1982. This is widely considered one of the greatest New Zealand live performances ever filmed. This song stayed at number one in the New Zealand song charts for five weeks.

In 1976, Sir Howard was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), and in 1990 he was knighted for his contribution to New Zealand entertainment.

Sir Howard Morrison used his fame to highlight some of the problems he saw in the community, for example, the barriers many young Māori people faced at school. He set up wānanga and education programmes and visited schools to encourage young people. He was involved in charity work until he passed away in 2009, when he was 74 years old.

In 2014, the Rotorua Convention Centre was re-named the Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts Centre in remembrance of all that he gave to the arts and community.

This story comes from the original Great Te Arawa Stories website created by Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru (NPeW) Education Trust in 2018. To ensure consistency, minimal updates were made to the text before it was transferred to this new site.