Voices of Silence Reconsidered (Brief Biography‪)‬

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 2008 was the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Voices of Silence, a monograph on Futuna Chapel. The book's author, Russell Walden, was born in Timaru in 1934, and studied architecture at Auckland University College, following two draughting cadetships at the Ministry of Works (1952-1954), and three months of compulsory military training with the New Zealand Air Force in early 1954. After completing his BArch thesis (1961), Walden was awarded the first Master of Architecture degree in New Zealand in 1964, and received the first New Zealand Post-Graduate Scholarship in architecture. (1) In 1965 he began studying for his PhD at the Institute for the Study of Worship and Religious Architecture at Birmingham University. He also practiced architecture in private practice (1965) and for the Birmingham City Architects (1969-1971), returning to New Zealand in 1978 to take up the position as Reader in Architectural History at the recently established School of Architecture at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW). (2)