We are saddened by the passing of Professor Vivienne Gray (née Forbes), OHS Dux of 1964 and Distinguished Alumna. A renowned scholar of Classics, she gained international recognition for her work on Xenophon.

We were sad to hear of the passing of Professor Vivienne Gray (nee Forbes) on June 9, 2025.. Vivienne was inducted as a Distinguished Alumni of Onehunga High School in 2011. She was Dux in 1964 and went on to become an Emeritus Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Auckland University. 

The school yearbook noted that 1964 was a year of successes for Vivienne Forbes. She was awarded an Auckland Savings Bank Bursary for her work in 6A (now called Year 13). Vivienne won the prize for the best essay for all entrants in the competition conducted by the University of Otago for the French Government and Alliance Francaise. She also went on an exchange to Australia organised by Lions Clubs International. She was Dux that year and received a Credit Pass in the Scholarship Exams.

 Vivienne Gray received a postgraduate scholarship and completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge. In 1978 she was awarded a Rhodes Visiting Scholarship to Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford. Gray then joined the Faculty of the University of Auckland, rising to full professor.                                

Vivienne Forbes OHS Dux 1964 Gray was a specialist on the Greek philosopher and historian Xenophon, and has received international recognition of her work. She has published five books on Xenophon, including a work on his Hellenica in 1989, explaining the form and function of the Hellenica, and arguing that it must first be understood as a literary work before it can be understood as an historical one. Gray followed this with a monograph on Xenophon's treatment of Socrates in 1998. Her 2007 book On Government describes three works on government, two by Xenophon ( the Constitution of the Lacedaemonians and the Hiero) and one previously ascribed to him (the Constitution of the Athenians). In 2010 she wrote the Oxford Readings volume on Xenophon.  As of 2024, her most recent work is the 2011 Xenophon's Mirror of Princes, covering his work on leadership and arguing against the Straussian reading of irony in Xenophon's writings. Eve A. Browning described Gray as "a major driving force behind this Xenophon renaissance... whose energetic defense of his significance, uniqueness, philosophical depth, writing brilliance, and unified intellectual mission has been ongoing for two decades".