On leaving Burnside High, Richard worked briefly for the Met Service before training as a teacher and studying at the University of Canterbury. He then taught music in high schools for 10 years – including two at St Bede’s in Christchurch, and eight at Rangiora High – before beginning training for the Anglican ministry at St John’s College in Auckland in 1983. Richard was ordained an Anglican priest in 1985, served his curacy at Highfield-Marchwiel (in Timaru) and was vicar of Kensington-Otipua, in south Timaru, from 1986 to 1991. He had learned Maori at St John’s and, at the invitation of Ngai Tahu, he taught Te Reo at Aoraki Polytech in Timaru. In 1991, Richard was asked by Bishop Derek Eaton to move to the Nelson Diocese, to begin ministry at the Church of the Nativity in Blenheim. He became the longest-serving minister in Marlborough. Both Richard and Hilary played an active part in the wider Marlborough, and now Nelson, communities. Richard and Hilary have two adult children.