Class of 1966
This interview was compiled by Rennae Taylor from an interview conducted by Michaela Selway on 30 May 2025 with Marise’s brother John and her two nieces, Lisa and Rachael Thacker. Other secondary sources are listed in the bibliography.
Childhood and early life
Marise Thacker was born in 1941 in Christchurch to Walter and Joyce (nee Burt) Thacker. Two years later, her brother John joined the family.
Walter’s grandfather John Thacker had immigrated from Ireland to Christchurch in 1850 before settling in Okains Bay on Banks Peninsula in 1852 to establish a successful farming enterprise. Walter was a quiet, introverted man who had worked as a high-country station musterer in his early life before meeting his wife and thereafter managing family trusts. Joyce, Marise’s mother was a shorthand secretary, whose family had immigrated from England and settled in Christchurch.
Marise grew up in the inner-city suburb of Strowan, Christchurch and attended Elmwood Normal School. According to her brother, she was not a keen student in her early school years and was known to occasionally skip school. She was shy and wore glasses from an early age.
Her mother and aunt had both attended Rangi Ruru Girls’ School, an independent secondary school that Marise also attended. She thrived in this learning environment and became very keen on science subjects, obtaining first prize for both chemistry and physics during fifth form (now year 11). (1) She became head girl in her final year of school in 1958. (2)
Her brother recalls Marise not being overly interested in sport. He tried to get her involved in his interest of “natural history”, which included gardening and looking for insects. Their parents were keen gardeners and encouraged Marise and John to take part. They had a small sub-plot to grow their own vegetables.
Marise and John would sometimes go to the end of their street to a field with grazing horses; they would feed the horses with grass gathered from their side of the fence. Marise found the horses intriguing and would sketch them. John said his father was very good and spent time instructing Marise on the technique of sketching. Mostly he remembers that Marise “always had her head in a book”.
The main family connection with medicine was Marise’s great-uncle, Dr Henry Thacker who was a prominent Christchurch figure who served as a doctor, mayor, and member of parliament. (3) Marise’s mother originally expressed her preference for her to go into nursing, she worried about the level of commitment and sacrifice that would be required for medicine.
University years and Post Graduate Training
After completing secondary school, Marise headed to Otago University. She passed her medical intermediate exams at the end of 1959. (4) She started her time in Dunedin at St Margaret’s College before sharing flats with friends on George and Castle Streets. Judith Anne Driscoll (nee Daniels) (class of 1964) was one medical graduate she flatted with while the others were Home Economic students. Medical school was challenging, and she devoted most of her time to study. She had little social life, her brother said “she kept a lot of things to herself, and she was very self-motivated”. She failed some of her papers but was successful in obtaining her MB ChB in 1966. The family travelled down from Christchurch for her graduation. Her mother felt she had to work very hard for a lot of years to become a doctor and although her brother recalls she had some good men paying attention during these years she never married.
Following graduation Marise completed some post registration time in Christchurch prior to heading to the United Kingdom. Here she spent time in Guildford receiving training in anaesthesia. She was successful in obtaining her Diploma in Anaesthetics from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1969. She returned home to Christchurch earlier than intended to nurse her mother until her death in late February 1973 at the age of 62. Her father died in 1989 at the age of 86.
Marise joined the Anaesthetic Department at Christchurch Hospital as an anaesthetic registrar in mid-1973 and obtained her Fellowship of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1978. (5) Her niece Rachael remembers her saying she chose this field to specialise in because of the close interaction with her patients and being able to help them with their pain.
Career and contributions
Marise spent most of her career at Christchurch Hospital. In the obituary written for the ANCCA bulletin, (6) a colleague, Dr Margaret Chacko, recalls that she and Marise were mentored by Dr Gwenda Lewis, who was confined to a wheelchair due to polio. She taught them a humanitarian approach to anaesthesia which included holding the patient’s hand and looking at them at eye level rather than from the end of the bed. They did their Part 1 exams in Dunedin and Part 2 in Auckland.
In 1977, she started studying anaphylactoid/anaphylactic reactions in relation to anaesthesia and travelled to Sydney, Australia, Nancy, France, Sheffield, UK and Belfast, Ireland to further her knowledge in this area. On her return to Christchurch the first skin testing for allergy was done in August 1977 on a patient who had an adverse anaesthetic event in June 1977. Future patients would be booked on the Friday afternoon clinic and each drug dilution was prepared for the testing. There was also time for the patient and their family to talk about their near-death experience and to prepare them for future anaesthesia. This was new knowledge and Marise commenced keeping detailed records on each patient which she shared with the patient, their GP, the medic alert foundation as well as their clinical records. She asked other anaesthetists to forward her information on any future anaesthetics the patient had. This culminated in the publication “Subsequent general anaesthesia in patients with a history of previous anaphylactoid/anaphylactic reaction to muscle relaxant” by Marise and her colleague Mike Davis in the journal “Anaesthesia Intensive Care” in 1999. In her obituary, written by her colleague Dr Susan Nicoll, she said it continued to be one of the most comprehensive publications on the value of skin testing. Marise was a founding member of the NZ Adverse Reactions Group which started in 1991 and in 2010 became the Australian and NZ Anaesthetic Allergy Group which still continues.
Marise dedicated her career to improving patient safety and advancing anaesthetic allergy research. Her colleague Dr Susan Nicoll who took over from Marise at Christchurch hospital said Marise was a wonderful, warm woman, who retained a deep but girlish giggle and a sense of joy. She was a very humble, ladylike giantess, on whose shoulders we stand, and it is with sadness, and with immense respect that we remember her.
Retirement
In 1997, at the age of 55 years, Marise decided to retire. She wanted to spend more time with her three nieces, other family members and to work on the Thacker family history. She taught her nieces to drive and Amanda, the middle sibling managed to crash into a fence during one of her lessons. Her aunt’s response was to calmy and empathetically tell her that she would take care of it and not to worry. Marise was described by her family as an incredibly patient, humble, generous and supportive aunt. She also spent more time on her water colour paintings; she joined a painting group who held exhibitions. Some of her water colours featured pixies and fairies for the children of her friends, as well as landscapes and portraits. She also spent time finishing off her research work on skin testing. She was a “home body” but did do some travel including Europe and visiting her niece while she was living in Canada. Marise became involved in her church and some of their community outreach. She met and befriended a few Russian immigrants who she taught English to and occasionally to drive. Through her church she met a partner who she was with for seven years, he was diabetic, and she took great care nursing him when his health deteriorated and was his sole carer at home until he died.
Marise spent her later years at Ngaio Marsh Retirement Village in Papanui, Christchurch. Unfortunately, she was a casualty of the loneliness of the Covid shutdown, and her health started to decline over this time. She was in an independent villa but eventually had to move into the care section of the village. She did not enjoy this and lost motivation to socialise with other patients or go on outings. Marise died 26 February 2023 at the age of 82 years, with her eldest niece Lisa and her brother John by her side.
Bibliography
- Rangi-Ruru Press. 1958. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19581213.2.159
- Rangi-ruru Pupils At End-Of-Year Service Press. 1958. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19581208.2.82
- Rice GW. ‘Thacker, Henry Thomas Joynt’ Dictionary of New Zealand Biography: Wellington 1996 [02.12.2025]. Available from: https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3t28/thacker-henry-thomas-joynt
- Degree Examination Results. Press. 1959. Available from: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19591201.2.234
- Supplement to the New Zealand Gazette Medical Register and Register of Specialists [Internet]. Wellington: Government Printer; 1980. Available from: https://www.nzlii.org/nz/other/nz_gazette/1980/134/1.pdf
- Nicoll S. Marise Anne Thacker. ANZCA Bulletin. 2023 30.06.2023;84.
