Robin Williams

Robert Martin Williams (30 March 1919 – 18 March 2013), generally known as Robin Williams, was a New Zealand mathematician, academic administrator and public servant. He served as vice chancellor of the University of Otago from 1967 to 1972, and of the Australian National University from 1973 to 1975. Between 1975 and 1981, he was chair of the State Services Commission.

Early life and family Born in Christchurch in 1919, Williams was educated at Christ's College and went on to study at Canterbury University College, graduating MA with first-class honours in mathematics and mathematical physics in 1941.

On 15 July 1944, Williams married Mary Thorpe in Wellington, and the couple went on to have three children. After the war, he graduated from St. John's College, Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts (1946) and PhD (1949). He was a Harkness Fellow at Princeton in 1957.

In 1963, Williams moved to work as an administrator at the State Services Commission. In 1972, Williams was conferred with an honorary LLD degree by the University of Otago. In the 1973 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to science, administration and education, and in the 1981 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

Death Williams died in Wellington in 2013, aged 93.