Anthony Dreaver, Deputy Chair of the Kāpiti US Marines Trust, Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the community .
The Kapiti US Marines Trust is delighted to see it’s lead historian, Anthony Dreaver honoured is the recent King’s Birthday honours.
Anthony Dreaver earned his stripes as a popular social studies and geography teacher.
An elegant presenter with great story-telling skills, he found his ‘inner curator’ later in life bringing his passion for history to the wider Horowhenua and Kāpiti communities.
He has written seven books, including: Horowhenua County & its people – a Centennial History; An Eye for Country; the life and work of Leslie Adkin and Levin: The Making of a Town (2006).
Anthony has worked thousands of voluntary hours in governance roles, as a project manager and historian for Horowhenua and Kāpiti Heritage organisations - in particular: the Horowhenua Historical Society, the Paekākāriki Station Precinct Trust, the Kāpiti US Marines Trust, the Friends of Ōtaki Rotunda Trust and the Friends of Kāpiti Coast District Libraries.
In the last 20+ years, Anthony has worked with volunteers, professional contractors, graphic designers, engineers, park rangers and others to tell significant local stories, in outdoor and museum environments. Examples are:
A large way-finding heritage signage project on the Paekākāriki Station platform 2010; the installation of A Friend In Need – a major exhibition on the Marines’ encampment in Paekākāriki (2011); Up-grade of the US Marines Memorial in Queen Elizabeth Park (2012); design and build of the Sailors’ Memorial in QE Park (2012); design and construction of a US Marines Heritage Walk in Whareroa Farm, formerly Camp Mackay, (2013); restoration of a 1942 US Marines Hut and its conversion into a story-telling centre in QEP, (2014) and the design and build of the Camp Paekākāriki memorial wall, opened in November 2022.