Family put postie under third degree

Dr Jeremy (Peter) Blakey with wife Dr Judy Blakey (right) and daughter-in-law Dr Jo Blakey. Photo / Martin Sykes

The postman will be kept on his toes now that there are three Dr J. Blakeys living next door to one another.

The Blakey family will celebrate their latest academic milestone when Dr Jeremy Peter Blakey, known as Peter, is formally presented with his university doctorate at Massey University's capping ceremony today.

At 67, Peter was one of the oldest students at the university studying information systems, but he insists it is "never too late to learn".

Peter also lectures in the subject at Massey University and worked in the field for 20 years before moving to New Zealand from South Africa.

He has seen a huge change from "large, monolithic, inflexible" computers to laptops.

"Now people are doing their computing while they're walking along the street."

Peter maintains his first-year students keep him young and he "does not do stress", but his wife Judy, 59, who became a doctor of philosophy in October last year, said she found her husband's doctorate study a highly stressful period.

She said he had to cope with a major restructuring at Massey University, redundancy, having to reapply for a job and then being deployed from Palmerston North to Auckland while completing his doctorate last year.

Fortunately, they were able to buy the house next door to their son on Auckland's North Shore and were able to enjoy their three grandchildren, aged 6, 4 and 2.

Peter's daughter-in-law and neighbour, Dr Jo Blakey, 35, a doctor in medicine who also holds graduate diplomas in sports medicine, obstetrics and children's health, said the past few have been "a hard slog" for her parents-in-law but they always found time to read to their grandchildren and pass on their enthusiasm for learning.

Judy said the family's achievements showed the opportunities available in New Zealand.

"I don't think we would have gone this far if we had remained in South Africa because academia was quite elitist there."