Mary Clemens de Lisle

Mary Clemens de Lisle (née Hay) was an architect and artist based in Hamilton, New Zealand. She was the fifth woman to graduate with a bachelor of architecture and the sixth to become member of the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA). She worked at the Hamilton-based firm White, de Lisle and Fraser, with her husband Aubrey de Lisle.

Biography De Lisle was born in Auckland in 1922 as Mary Clemens Hay. She was the only child of Gordon Clemens Hay and Gertrude Williams.

Hay began studying architecture at School of Architecture at the University of Auckland in 1939 and in 1945 became the fifth woman in Aotearoa New Zealand to graduate with a bachelor of architecture. During this time she served for one year on the Auckland University College Students' Executive De Lisle and her husband had two sons.

Mary de Lisle's speech in 1969 to the Architect's Wives at the N.Z.I.A Conference at Rotorua, identified issues of addressing housing to meet the future population growth, noting that each month 70-80 new houses should be constructed. de Lisle provided an example of the expected growth through to 2020. At the N.Z.I.A Conference de Lisle reminded everyone of the Declaration of Human Rights from the 1948 Paris conference and the 1966 21st Session of the United Nations General Assembly and the adoption key international covenants the International Covenants on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (IESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). de Lisle had highlighted that the key items were on the rights on freedom of speech, beliefs and to live without fear and want.