Church College of New Zealand

Church College of New Zealand
Church College campus, with Hamilton New Zealand Temple in background
Address
Tuhikaramea Road, Temple View, Hamilton
Coordinates	37°49′13″S 175°13′40″E / 37.8204°S 175.2277°E / -37.8204; 175.2277Coordinates: 37°49′13″S 175°13′40″E / 37.8204°S 175.2277°E / -37.8204; 175.2277
Information
Type	Private, Co-educational, Secondary Years 9–13
Motto	Build Now for Eternity
Established	1958
Ministry of Education Institution no.	128
Principal	Lloyd Keung
School roll	394
Socio-economic decile	5
Website	ccnzaa.org

Church College of New Zealand was a private secondary school in Temple View, Hamilton, New Zealand, that was operated by the Church Educational System of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It was closed at the end of the 2009 school year.

Construction of the Church College of New Zealand began in 1952. In 1955, the LDS Church announced that it would construct a temple in Hamilton. LDS Church president David O. McKay initially went to New Zealand to downsize the building programme. After visiting the project, McKay was so impressed with what he saw and felt he decided to add two more buildings to the school construction, which were later named the David O. McKay Auditorium and the Matthew Cowley Administration Building. Church College and the Hamilton New Zealand Temple were built on the same 35 hectare site in what later became Temple View, a suburb of Hamilton. Both facilities were built entirely by LDS Church volunteer labour missionaries. Church College was dedicated and formally opened on 26 April 1958 by McKay. Clifton D. Boyack was the first principal of the school.

The foundations were laid for everything in Temple View in the early 1950s. Inspection for a property in Tuikaramea road began in 1950. The mission president, Gordon Young, drove out to the area, and knew immediately that that was the place where the LDS Church was to build a school and temple. Church officials from Utah came and bought the property, and members of the church from all over New Zealand slowly moved into the area to work as labour missionaries on the project.

Before any work commenced on the school, the surrounding property was developed. The temple foundations were laid, the accommodations for the people who came to work were built, and a social infrastructure was established. Initially, there were only a few people at the site. Much of the surrounding land was peat, and it took some ingenuity to make the land agriculturally productive.