Our trustees were sorry to learn of the death of Dinah Holman on 21 September 2026. Dinah, who was the youngest child of A.R.D. and Jocelyn Fairburn, served on the Auckland Library Heritage Trust from 1997 until 2022. Historian, writer, biographer, friend of libraries and heritage planning consultant, Dinah was also a keen photographer. A number of her photos of buildings, memorials and other places are in Kura Heritage Collections Online and turn up in social media posts.
Dinah was literary executor of her father's estate and herself wrote both non-fiction and fiction. Her 2014 novel A History of Crime - The Southern Double-Cross was longlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. In 1987 Dinah received a QSO for her public service to heritage. The New Zealand Planning Institute awarded her a Distinguished Service Award in 1992.
Trustees remember Dinah with respect and fondness.
Image: Dinah's photo and book cover; source, https://www.rnz.co.nz/
