Story: Pearson, William Harrison

Don and Bill

A photograph of two men standing against the outside wall of a house. Don, on the left, is in his mid-30s, slim and wearing a moustache. Bill, on the right, is middle-aged with longish hair and a goatee beard. Both men are smiling.

Bill Pearson (right) with his long-time partner, Don Stenhouse, in about 1973. The pair met in Canberra in 1968, and Stenhouse moved to New Zealand to be with Bill. Their relationship encountered difficulties, exacerbated by the need for secrecy, and in 1978 they parted. They stayed close friends, however, and reunited in 1985, remaining together until Pearson’s death in 2002.

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How to cite this page:

Paul Millar. 'Pearson, William Harrison', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2022. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/6p5/pearson-william-harrison (accessed 22 May 2024)