page_title: Taumarunui
section_title: Born in Taumarunui
hierarchical_section_title: Taumarunui / Notable people / Born in Taumarunui
caption_attribution_description: English: Carmen Rupe in 2009.
context_page_description: Taumarunui is a small town in the King Country of the central North Island of New Zealand. It is on an alluvial plain set within rugged terrain on the upper reaches of the Whanganui River, 65 km south of Te Kuiti and 55 km west of Turangi. It is under the jurisdiction of Ruapehu District and Manawatū-Whanganui region.
  Its population is 4,503, making it the largest centre for a considerable distance in any direction. It is on State Highway 4 and the North Island Main Trunk railway.
  The name Taumarunui is reported to be the dying words of the Māori chief Pehi Turoa – taumaru meaning screen and nui big, literally translated as Big Screen, being built to shelter him from the sun, or more commonly known to mean – "The place of big shelter". There are also references to Taumarunui being known as large sheltered location for growing kumara.
  In the 1980s publication Roll Back the Years there are some details on how Taumarunui got its name. Extract: "According to Frank T Brown, who wrote in the Taumarunui Press in 1926, the name Taumarunui is closely connected with the arrival of and conquering of that portion of the King Country by the Whanganui River natives during the 18th century. ..
context_section_description: 1914 – Wiremu Hakopa Toa Te Awhitu SM (1914–1994) was the first Māori to be ordained a Catholic priest.
  1934 – Ian Barker, solicitor, judge, and legal scholar
  1935 – Don Selwyn, actor, director, stage and screen, Ngāti Kuri and Te Aupōuri (1935–2007) 
  1936 – Carmen Rupe (né Trevor Rupe, 1935–15 December 2011) – Wellington personality (mayoral candidate (1977), drag queen, cafe owner and brothel keeper).
  1939 – David Penny, theoretical biologist.
  1945 – Carole Shepheard, artist.
  1951 – Joe Karam, rugby union player, researcher and investigator for David Bain's legal team.
  1952 – Ian Ferguson, Olympic canoer.
  1952 – Max Takuira Matthew Mariu SM (1952–2005), Auxiliary Catholic Bishop of Hamilton (1988–2005), first Māori to be ordained a Catholic bishop.
  1953 – Marc Hunter, lead singer of Dragon.
  1955 – Mahinārangi Tocker, singer.
  1956 – Len Brown Mayor of Auckland
  1958 – Jillian Smith, field hockey player.
  1958 – Lindsay Crocker, cricketer.
  1963 Timothy J. Sinclair, political scientist at the University of Warwick in England.
  1971 – Kyle Chapman, former leader of the New Zealand National Front
  1973 – Chris McCormack World Champion Ironman Triathlete (2007, 2010).
caption: Carmen Rupe
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