Priest was confidant of Baxter
TColin Durning
dentistry professor/priest b January 18, 1927 d February 14, 2022
he influence of Colin Durning went far beyond the shores of New Zealand as a husband, father, dentist, professor, priest, kaumā tua and friend to many.
The eldest of six children, he was born in Timaru to Winifred (nee Geaney) and William Durning, part of a proud and strongly Catholic family who emigrated to Timaru from Scotland in 1923.
He attended St Patrick’s High School, Timaru, then Canterbury University College before starting dental training at the University of Otago Dental School. He graduated with distinction in prosthetic dentistry in 1949 before attaining his masters in the same speciality in 1950.
His great academic success continued when he won a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951 and took up a Zoller Fellowship to do his PhD in anatomy and physiology at the University of Chicago.
He married Eve Black before travelling to the United States in early 1952. He completed his PhD in 1958 and for a time taught prosthetic and general dentistry at the Billings Hospital and University of Chicago.
Colin, Eve – and by this time five children – returned to Dunedin, where he lectured in Basic Dental Sciences at the University of Otago Dental School.
In 1960, now with six children, he took up a position in the anatomy department of the University of Puerto Rico Medical School, teaching neuroanatomy, histology and anatomy.
While living in the West Indies, his seventh child was born. The family then relocated to Detroit, Michigan, where he took up the position of associate professor and director of research at the University of Detroit School of Dentistry.
After he was invited by the University of Otago to apply for the vacant professorship in prosthetic dentistry, the family returned to New Zealand in February 1964. He was chairman of the
Department of Prosthetic Dentistry for six years. The family adopted their eighth child during this time and, years later, he became a father figure to two more children.
Among their many interests, Colin and Eve were very much involved with Dunedin’s Globe Theatre. Eve was an amateur actress there and occasionally Colin did some acting as well. Mainly through this association, they became good friends with many artists and writers – among them Ralph Hotere, James K. Baxter, Hone Tuwhare, Marilyn Webb, Janet Frame, Peter Olds and Marti Friedlander.
To the surprise of many but not to others, he resigned from the dental school position in 1970 when he decided he needed a change of direction. In an interview with The Critic, the Otago University student magazine, he was quoted as saying that he was not one to be greatly concerned with status, salary and things of that nature.
In 1971 the family moved to Invercargill, where Durning worked as assistant director of the Marysville Rehabilitation Centre which provided opportunities for young offenders to reintegrate into society.
January 1972 saw the family return to Port Chalmers, where he worked as a chemist at the Sawyers Bay Glendermid Tannery. Ever the academic, while there he wrote a paper on the effects of tannery effluent on the environment. As one of his many close friends said, ‘‘Colin never planned his career but instead allowed the flow of life to carry him along.’’
He was a close friend and confidant of Baxter, who dedicated his ‘‘Jerusalem Sonnets’’ to him. Baxter’s work and friendship greatly influenced Durning and in May 1973, after Baxter’s death, he lived for a time at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River.
Later that same year, Durning returned to dentistry as a senior dental surgeon for the Wellington Hospital Board before being appointed head of the dental department at Porirua Psychiatric
Hospital, where he worked for 14 years.
In this at times challenging environment, the dental department became a sort of refuge for many inpatients who sought a respite from their daily lives in the wards. The department also provided dental care for women at nearby Arohata Prison – care that was seen as a ‘‘privilege’’ due to the gentle, welcoming and non-judgmental culture of the department.
As one associate and friend said, ‘‘As a dentist, he cared for their teeth; as a person, he restored many to their mana.’’
Another close colleague remembered Colin as always approachable. ‘‘Apart from his clinical expertise, I remember him as being extraordinarily patient, nonjudgmental and humble.
‘‘He could relate to anyone, but I always thought he had a great empathy with people who faced challenges that made life difficult for them.’’
While he worked at Porirua Hospital, the medical superintendent suggested Durning set up a committee to document the prevalence and severity of the neurological disorder, tardive dyskinesia, in the hospital. This is a not uncommon debilitating side effect of long-term antipsychotic