He founded the first landscape architecture course in New Zealand at Lincoln College (now Lincoln University) in 1969 and had a high-profile career as a teacher of landscape architecture. Renee Davies, president of the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects (NZILA), said Mr. Challenger educated and influenced many senior members of the profession, whom also benefited from his leadership.

?EUR??,,????'??Charlie?EUR??,,????'???s significant and ongoing contribution to the landscape architecture profession is recognized through our bi-annual NZILA Pride of Place Landscape Awards, where excellence in landscape planning is awarded the Charlie Challenger Supreme Award.?EUR??,,????'??

His demanding teaching standards and role in founding the NZILA greatly influenced the recognition of landscape architecture here. ?EUR??,,????'??The successful establishment of landscape architecture in New Zealand germinated from Charlie?EUR??,,????'???s groundbreaking course,?EUR??,,????'?? said former NZILA President Di Lucas. ?EUR??,,????'??We owe our skills, commitment and passion for the protection and restoration of and creative change and problem solving in NZ landscapes to Charlie’s teachings and leadership through the years when the profession was established. NZ landscape architects are often seen as world leaders in the profession. Charlie should be credited with that.?EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'???

Charlie Challenger grew up in pre-war Britain. He loved the countryside and taking bicycle excursions around Gloucestershire.

With a degree from the University of Reading, Charlie lectured in horticultural science at the University of Bristol.

In 1956, he and his wife, Pat, immigrated to New Zealand, where he became a lecturer in horticulture at Lincoln Agricultural College. As the head of the college?EUR??,,????'???s horticulture department in 1962, he was an avidly reader on the subject of landscape architecture and saw a need for it in New Zealand.

He traveled to Sweden in 1963 and was so impressed with the landscape design there that he convinced Lincoln College to establish a landscape architecture course.

The problem at the time was the lack of qualified instructors in New Zealand to teach the course work. Mr. Challenger returned to Britain to study landscape architecture at the University of Newcastle, passing with distinction. He returned to Lincoln in 1968 and within six months set up the two-year postgraduate diploma course (Dip LA) and found a teaching assistant?EUR??,,????'??+a former horticulture student, Frank Boffa, who had just qualified as a landscape architect in the United States. The first intake of five students graduated in 1971.

Mr. Challenger was keenly aware of the hurdles his students faced entering a virtually unknown profession. Charlie told the first graduates they had to be ?EUR??,,????'??apostles.?EUR??,,????'??

One of those graduates was Robin Gay, who recalls Mr. Challenger as ?EUR??,,????'??absolutely stimulating (with) an amazing sense of what New Zealand should be doing and where we should be going with our landscape.?EUR??,,????'????EUR??,,????'???

Mr. Challenger was among a small coterie that founded the NZILA in 1972 and was awarded life membership 10 years later.
One of his 1972 students, Gordon Griffin, said his lectures were a work of art.

?EUR??,,????'??It seemed a pity each of those lectures was not being filmed and stored for others to see and hear.?EUR??,,????'??