Roman Catholic Cardinal. The fifth of seven children of a police constable, Greymouth born Peter Thomas Bertram McKeefry was educated at the Christian Brothers' school in Dunedin. Entering Holy Cross College in Mosgiel in 1916, he was sent to study for four years at the Urban College de Propaganda Fide in Rome where he was ordained priest on April 3, 1926 by Cardinal Basilio Pompilj. Back in New Zealand in November that year, he initially served as curate at the cathedral parish in Auckland. Editor of the diocesan newspaper "The Month", under his editorship the journal was succeeded in May 1934 by the fortnightly "Zealandia" reaching a circulation of 14,000 copies. Appointed coadjutor archbishop of the archdiocese of Wellington with right of succession by Pope Pius XII, he received his episcopal consecration with the titular see of Dercos at Saint Patrick's cathedral of Auckland on October 19, 1947 from Cardinal Norman Gilroy, Archbishop of Sydney. Succeeding to the metropolitan see on May 9, 1954, he was the first New Zealand born priest to hold this position and the first secular bishop to take charge of the archdiocese, his three predecessors having belonged to the Society of Mary. With thirty-nine new parishes established across the archdiocese between 1947 and 1969, with a view to the future division of the archdiocese McKeefry founded institutions in provincial areas such as the Holy Family Home for the aged in Hastings run by the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Diocesan Pastoral Centre in Palmerston North, a venue for retreats and courses. Encouraging movements that cultivated lay spirituality and inculcated Catholic teaching, one of the most successful being the Guild of St. Luke and Saints Cosmas and Damian for Catholic physicians, in the consistory of April 28, 1969, McKeefry was elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals by Pope Paul VI as cardinal priest with the title of Santa Maria Immacolata al Tiburtino, becoming this the first cardinal from New Zealand. At six feet four inches, Cardinal McKeefry was very tall and slim with a high forehead and large ears. As he grew older, his youthful good looks gave way to a rather grave and ascetic appearance. From his arrival in Wellington, carrying all his possessions in a few small suitcases, he lived at the Thorndon presbytery in Guilford Terrace as a permanent guest of the parish priest, occupying only two modest rooms as his office and bedroom. McKeefry's simplicity and lack of pretension were not motivated solely by religion, but also reflected his West Coast origins, as perhaps did his lunchtime beer, heavy smoking and consistent pronunciation of "my" as "me". Although a scholar rather than a sportsman, he could talk knowledgeably about horse racing, rugby, rowing, boxing and wrestling. On Sunday, November 18, 1973, while making arrangements by telephone at the presbytery for the accommodation of a convalescent priest whom he had just visited, McKeefry died suddenly with a cigarette smouldering between his fingers. He was buried in Karori's Cemetery after a funeral attended by numerous civic and ecclesiastical dignitaries and amidst copious tributes from within and beyond his own Church.