Early Life
Don Merton was born in Devonport, Auckland in February 1939 and with his family moved to Gisborne later that year when Don’s father, Glaisher (Major) Merton was appointed the first New Zealand Automobile Association representative in the Poverty Bay region. Initially, the family settled at Wainui Beach near Gisborne, but in 1945 moved to a farmlet in Mangapapa Road, Gisborne.
Together with his two older brothers Don had early success fostering an orphaned wild goldfinch nestling to their Grandmother's canary. This early success proved crucial 35 years later in inspiring a cross-fostering programme to save the black robin, which at that time numbered 5 individuals including just one productive pair, and was the most endangered species in the world.
Don attended schools at Kaiti, Mangapapa, Gisborne Intermediate and Gisborne High School. On leaving school he secured a traineeship with the fledgling New Zealand Wildlife Service. In 1987 the Wildlife Service merged with other Government conservation agencies to form the Department of Conservation. In the early 1960s Don became one of only two field officers working nationally on threatened species, roles now filled by more than 80 staff. Don married Margaret Johnston of Hangaroa near Gisborne and has a son, Dave, a daughter-in-law Jan Tinetti and two teen-age grandsons, Liam and Zak, all living in Tauranga, New Zealand.
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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