Keith Jacka Holyoake (1904-1983) was a New Zealand prime minister and leader of the National Party who subsequently became his country's governor general. An astute politician, he led his party to four successive electoral victories and presided over material prosperity and rising social expectations from 1960 to 1972.

The Right Honourable Sir Keith Jacka Holyoake was born near Pahiatua in the lower part of New Zealand's North Island on February 11, 1904. He was the third of seven children and descended from settlers who had migrated to New Zealand from England in 1842. Holyoake's father ran a small general store before eventually taking over a mixed hops, tobacco, fruit, and dairy farm at Riwaka near Motueka in the South Island.

At the age of 12, when his father became ill, Holyoake left school to help on the farm. His ex-schoolteacher mother continued to teach him at home in the evenings. Although he later in...