Pompallier College is named after Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier who led the first group of Catholic Missionaries to New Zealand, arriving in the Hokianga with Fr Servant and Br Michel a Marist Priest and Brother in 1838.
Jean-Paul Sartre | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | Jean Cocteau | Jean Genet | Jean-Luc Godard | Wyclef Jean | Jean Racine | Jean Chrétien | Jean Michel Jarre | Jean Paul Gaultier | Jean Nouvel | Jean-Michel Basquiat | Jean Giraud | Jean Sibelius | Jean-Luc Ponty | Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot | Jean-Claude Van Damme | Jean Renoir | Jean-Pierre Rampal | Jean-Léon Gérôme | Jean Harlow | Jean Anouilh | Billie Jean King | Jean Giraudoux | Jean-Bertrand Aristide | Jean Baudrillard | Jean-Pierre Thiollet | Jean-Martin Charcot | Jean Gabin | Jean de Florette |
He received help in choosing a college and hospitality while he was in England from Cardinal Newman who was a friend of Bishop Pompallier, the first Catholic Bishop of Auckland.
Bishop Pompallier sent Viard in May 1840 to set up a mission station at Tauranga with the help of a Maori catechist, Romano.