Prof Love (70) was made a Principal Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (PCNZM), the highest award bestowed in the New Year Honours today.
Prof Love has been a key researcher and negotiator with Te Atiawa and the Wellington Tenths Maori Land Trust, which has a Treaty of Waitangi settlement before Parliament.
He has also had a distinguished career as an academic and has sat on several boards, including New Zealand Post, Kiwibank, Te Papa and Victoria University.
The PCNZM is the second-highest honour - below the Order of New Zealand, which is limited to 20 living people.
Prof Love is the eighth person to become a PCNZM since the inception of the new honours system in 2000.
"I must say, it's a surprise," Prof Love said.
"I see it as a tribute to the work of many people over many years, both in the academic community and also among many of Te Atiawa before me and today."
Prof Love's grandfather, Wi Hapi, and his father, Ralph, both had leadership roles among Taranaki Maori, though he was raised in state houses in Wanganui and Wellington.
"As a child, I was travelling in the back of a Ford Prefect visiting many marae and hearing the people there talking their heads off.
"I didn't know what they were talking about but I realise now they were talking about land issues and injustices."
Prof Love worked in several businesses before entering the academic world in the 1970s.
That eventually took him overseas but he returned to help, taking up a negotiating role over land issues in the late 1970s.
"I got a call from the family saying, `You'd better come back and help out'," he said.
"I was like many of us, who feel there is a responsibility to our people and those before us to serve."
Much of his negotiating work has been around the claim for the Port Nicholson block in Wellington, sold around the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
"It was arranged by a group of entrepreneurs from England and signed off without government permission," Prof Love said.
"Very early on this sale was found not to be legal. It's clearly not in accordance with international law at that time."
The Bill before Parliament includes a Crown apology, $25 million compensation and the opportunity to buy a number of Crown properties in the Wellington region.
Also included is a statement of forgiveness from the claimants, something Prof Love says is a legacy of their forebear, Te Whiti o Rongomai, the spiritual leader and peaceful protester of Parihaka.
"If there is an apology from the Crown and we can give forgiveness then we are all in a much better position to go forward."
Though his honour is officially for services to Maori, Prof Love said he was also proud of helping set up the business faculty at Massey University in 1973.
"We took a new approach to many aspects of business education and now it's the largest business school in New Zealand."
Prof Love still plays his part with education, saying it is the path forward for Maori to succeed in the world, and he is particularly keen on helping Maori business people.
"International surveys show Maori are among the most entrepreneurial in the world. Where I can possibly help is teaching the skills that allow them to stay in business."
Prof Love has five children, 16 grandchildren and one great-grandchild and devotes much time to them.
But he said he was not planning a quiet retirement just yet.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm in my prime."
