A writer who loved to learn

Alumna cited for contribution to literature and lecturing

Four-year-old Mary Buckingham stood on a box in a radio studio to recite verses she had composed, and so began a career as a crafter of the English language. An author of five books, a columnist for the Hawkes Bay Herald Tribune, and a poetry contributor to Spectrum, Mary has been published hundreds of times.

Raised a Methodist, Mary, then 16, attended a Seventh-day Adventist mission presented by Pr Len Vince and joined the church through baptism. She declined a scholarship for a university education in New Zealand to attend Avondale, graduating from the Theological Normal course in 1950. As an athlete with records in hurdling, she also passed over an opportunity to compete at the Commonwealth Games. Marrying classmate John Trim in 1952, Mary supported her husband’s innovative public relations and wholistic health and wellbeing ministry in Australia, New Zealand and India—he ended his career as Chief Administrative Officer of Sydney Adventist Hospital.

Early career teaching appointments, including in Mumbai, and further undergraduate education preceded a long tenure as a lecturer in English at what is now Australian Catholic University. Mary would complete two master’s degrees and a postgraduate certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language. She continued to teach when John retired to the United Kingdom, in humanities at Newbold College and in childhood and children’s literature at Loughborough University, from which she graduated with a PhD. She would also lecture in Thailand.

The Class of 1950 honours Dr Mary Trim for parlaying a love of literature into a ministry of teaching and learning.