Biography.guide
Home › People › Bill Marsters
Portrait of Bill Marsters

Bill Marsters

1923 – 2004

President of the Cook Islands church

Don't just read it — keep itBiographies to ownE-book · Audio · Video From $7 →

About Bill Marsters

Lived 1923 – 2004 (aged 80). Bill Marsters was a New Zealand.

William Fatianga Marsters (26 November 1923 – 26 August 2004) was the first president of the Cook Islands Christian Church (CICC), the largest religious denomination in the Cook Islands.

Marsters was born on Palmerston Island. He is one of the 134 grandchildren of William Marsters, the English explorer who settled on the then-uninhabited Palmerston in 1863 with his three Polynesian wives. Bill Marsters was often referred to as "Reverend Bill" in order to distinguish him from the many other Marsters family members named after William Marsters.

Bill Marsters became the president of the CICC in 1968, when it was granted autonomy by an Act of the Parliament of the Cook Islands. He was a popular figure throughout the Cook Islands and administered the church from Rarotonga. Marsters was forced to resign from the church presidency in the late 1970s when he became involved in a scandal involving missing church funds. After his resignation, he returned to live in Palmerston Island, where he acted as the CICC pastor and the de facto head of the small island community of Marsters descendants.

Marsters' actions as head of the CICC and his subsequent behaviour on Palmerston Island were the subject of severe criticism in a 1994 book in which an American journalist visited Palmerston Island and reported on conversations he had had with many of the residents of the island.

Marsters and his wife were the parents of 12 children. Marsters died in 2004 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Biography shop

Don’t just read it —
keep it.

Full-length biographies made to live with: read them, listen on the way to work, watch them tonight.

  • E-book
  • Audio
  • Video
Browse the shop — from $7

Instant download · yours to keep · every purchase keeps this site free

Important facts

Birth century
Nationality
Also known as
William Fatianga Marsters

People in Bill Marsters's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Bill Marsters's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Bill Marsters?

President of the Cook Islands church

When was Bill Marsters born?

Bill Marsters was born on 26 November 1923.

When did Bill Marsters die?

Bill Marsters died on 26 August 2004.

What nationality was Bill Marsters?

Bill Marsters was New Zealand.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Bill Marsters

· Wikidata: Q4910035

· DBpedia: Bill Marsters

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Bill Marsters. https://biography.guide/bill-marsters/

MLA: "Bill Marsters." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/bill-marsters/.

Chicago: "Bill Marsters." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/bill-marsters/.

Data last updated: 2026-09-20 · Spot an error? Report a correction.

Page generated 2026-09-27 05:15 UTC