{{short description|New Zealand historian}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=October 2020}} '''Dorothy Woodham Fletcher''' (formerly '''King''', née '''Graham'''; 25 July 1927 – 10 August 2017) was a New Zealand historian.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Riley|first=Cheryl|date=2018-03-26|title=The Monday Extract: The loves and tragedies of Dorothy of Franz Josef|url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/26-03-2018/the-monday-extract-the-loves-and-tragedies-of-dorothy-of-franz-josef/|access-date=2020-10-06|website=The Spinoff}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Dorothy Fletcher obituary|url=https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/21108|access-date=2020-10-06|website=West Coast New Zealand History}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Greymouth Star|title=Dorothy Woodham Fletcher|url=http://www.greystar.co.nz/news/dorothy-woodham-fletcher-was-born-in-1927-to-ale-2/|access-date=2020-10-06|language=en-NZ}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://alpineclub.org.nz/parkside/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CW-October-2018-newsletter.pdf |title=NZAC deceased members |work=Uprising |page=13 |publisher=Canterbury/Westland section of the New Zealand Alpine Club |date=October 2018 |access-date=7 October 2020}}</ref> thumb|The Graham family's Franz Josef Glacier Hotel
== Biography == Fletcher was born in 1927 to Alec and Louisa Lydia Graham, part-owners of Franz Josef Glacier Hotel at Franz Josef. Her parents had met in England during World War I; her mother was English and her father from South Westland. Fletcher grew up in Franz Josef, and went to boarding school in Christchurch at Rangi Ruru Girls' School. When World War II broke out, she returned to Franz Josef and helped her family run the hotel until they decided to sell the business in 1947.<ref name=":0" />
From 1947 to 1949, Fletcher studied horticulture at Massey Agricultural College, then returned to Franz Josef and worked at the post office, Department of Conservation office and the hotel. In the late 1970s she was appointed Westland National Park historian and developed a collection of historical items and records covering the development of the area and its people. The collection was later donated to the Hokitika Museum. Fletcher also compiled her father's mountaineering photographs into the Alec Graham Photographic Collection and donated this to the Macmillan Brown Library at the University of Canterbury.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|last=McCormack|first=Trish|date=14 August 2017|title=Dorothy Fletcher - 1927-2017|work=Hokitika Guardian}}</ref>
=== Recognition === In 2017, a tuatara on public display at Franz Josef was named Dorothy in honour of Fletcher.<ref>{{Cite news |work=Greymouth Star |title=Franz Josef tuatara named in honour of historian|url=http://www.greystar.co.nz/news/franz-josef-tuatara-named-in-honour-of-historian/ |date=29 September 2017 |first=Laura |last=Mills |access-date=2020-10-06 |language=en-NZ}}</ref>
== Personal life == Fletcher was married twice. In 1959 she married Peter King, an Englishman who emigrated to New Zealand and became a park ranger at Westland National Park. The couple had two children together, however King was killed in a car accident in 1962, days after the birth of their second child. In 1973, Fletcher married Peter Fletcher, chief ranger at Westland National Park. He died in 1977 on the Copland Pass.<ref name=":1" />
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Dorothy}} Category:New Zealand women historians Category:1927 births Category:2017 deaths Category:People educated at Rangi Ruru Girls' School Category:Massey University alumni Category:People from the West Coast Region Category:20th-century New Zealand historians