Dad's life could fit into three main phases.

He was born in Dunedin, but brought up in the beautiful Catlins area where he developed a great love of nature and the outdoors. Also, because the area was so remote he developed a considerable self taught ability to improvise and invent mechanical parts to repair machinery for sawmills, tractors, cars, farm machinery etc.

His early life was quite hard, leaving school at the age of thirteen to work in the bush felling trees with axes and hand cross saw - no chainsaws in those days. Later he worked as a sawyer cutting timber from logs. These jobs were very heavy and hard work. Money was not plentiful and he spent considerable spare time trapping possums to earn an extra pound. In what small leisure time he could find he would pursue one of his favourite pastimes, that of sea fishing off the rocks.

The second phase started in 1952 when we all shifted to Dunedin. This was when his "do it yourself" nature and inventive ability really came to the fore, because we shifted complete with house (almost unheard of in those days) and Dad refurbished it from the foundation up, including roughcasting the exterior. He then went on to build a couple of boats, one a seven metre cabin cruiser for which he also built all the mechanical parts and trailer.

The third phase was retirement in 1973. His first retirement job was to build a mobile caravan from the chassis up. This took about 6 months. The last fifteen years of his life were based around this caravan. Mum and he usually started their Christmas holidays each year about October and ending in May because he liked to spend some time at home before taking their mid-year break which was usually from June to August.

Dad pursued his love of nature and the outdoors by camping and fishing, this occupied the majority of his time over the last fifteen years.

Fond Memories from the Family

1. Dads tartan berets, his "tatas" as he often called them.
   
2. He loved tartan shirts.
   
3. His first words when he visited anyone was "Is the kettle boiling?"
   
4. Meals always had to be on time, he was strict about this.
   
5. He always said grace before a meal, he was also strict about this.
   
6. Every time he came back from a bush holiday he would have a new walking stick that he had cut from a tree or branch he had picked up.
   
7. He was always giving handy hints to his grandchildren on how to fix things.
   
8. Dad was always looking at things trying to design something better.