Helen Hughes

Helen Hannah Rigg Hughes (née Rigg; 29 August 1929 – 23 November 2024) was a New Zealand botanist. She served as New Zealand's first Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, from 1987 to 1996.

Background Hughes was born Helen Hannah Rigg in Nelson on 29 August 1929, the daughter of agricultural scientist Theodore Rigg, who became director of the Cawthron Institute in 1933, and Esther Rigg (née White). She grew up in the suburb of Tāhunanui, and was educated at Nelson College for Girls, where she discovered her passion for botany. Rigg went on to complete a Master of Science degree with first-class honours in botany at Canterbury University College, graduating in 1952. She was awarded a Fulbright grant to travel to the United States, and studied at Vassar College from 1952 to 1954, earning a Master of Science degree.

Rigg married David Crowther Hughes in 1955, and the couple had four children.

Career After returning to New Zealand from the United States, Helen Hughes taught at secondary schools in Christchurch and later Wellington. including flood mitigations following Cyclone Bola, controlling marine oil pollution, the environmental management of coal mining, and possum management.

From 1997 to 2002, Hughes was a member of the board of the Environmental Risk Management Authority. Later that year, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1993 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Hughes was a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand.