Donor Story: Dermott O’Sullivan

The O’Sullivan Family has a long-established affiliation with Lincoln University, beginning when William (Dermott) O’Sullivan gained a DigAg (1972) and a DipVFM (1973). All four of Dermott’s sons, Ryan, Brett, Tim & Chris, followed in their father’s footsteps and went on to study at Lincoln University.

Dermott began his career after university working for the Lands and Survey Department (Landcorp) as a Field Officer out of Timaru, where he became registered as a valuer in 1975. After marrying Bronwen in 1974 and starting a family, the couple bought their first 76ha at Cricklewood, South Canterbury in 1977. Dermott finished with Lands and Survey in 1978 and began farm consultancy and rural valuation work to augment the farm income, which he continued doing for the next fifteen years.

Over the years various land purchases were made, and the land holding grew to one contiguous block of 500ha, running sheep, beef, and crops under the name of Glenire Farm. In 2007 the family converted the farm to dairy and all four sons came home to help with the conversion. Sadly, later in 2007, Bronwen died totally unexpectedly at age 53, which devastated the family.

Today, son Ryan and wife Tina manage the dairy farm milking 1200 cows, while Dermott remains a minor shareholder, and has moved off farm to a new property just out of Timaru. Having gone through the family succession process ten years ago, two sons, Brett and Tim, are now farming on their own account in Central Otago, while Chris has established a large commercial laundry business, Queen Bee Laundry, in Washdyke.

“Lincoln University, we believe, has played a major part in our family’s success in getting us to where we are today. We would like to give something back, and one way is to support a student from South Canterbury in pursuing an Agricultural degree, preferably a Bachelor of Land and Property Management.” - Dermott O’Sullivan

Dermott believes a BLPM not only addresses the shortage of rural valuers in New Zealand but is also a good all-round qualification that would open many doors in the agricultural industry for a graduate of this degree.

“We are grateful to the O'Sullivan Family for their generosity in establishing this scholarship, it was a pleasure to bring the O’Sullivan family’s vision to life.” - Penny Curan, Alumni and Development Officer, Lincoln University

Working alongside his solicitor Robbie Vincent and accountant Paul Wolfenbuttel, Dermott engaged the Aoraki Foundation to establish a named endowment that would provide the funds for the scholarship each year.

“The Foundation staff have been great to work with, and we were stoked to get nine applications from South Canterbury students in our first year, thanks to the great promotion work they did in conjunction with Lincoln”, Dermott said.

The inaugural scholarship has recently been awarded to former Timaru Boys High student Jack Neal. Jack comes from Fairlie and is currently studying for a BLPM majoring in Rural Valuation and Agricultural Management.