Pages

▼

Friday, 21 February 2020

William James "Bill" Kennedy (1910 —1979)


Bill Kennedy (left) discusses the bush area he developed with Bill Turner
Bay of Plenty Times, 29 Jul 1989. Courtesy of Tauranga City Library
This dynamic man was a friend of my grandfather Duff Maxwell of The Elms. I well remember they spent quite a lot of evenings together in the 1960s as both were interested in the development of McLarens Falls Park as an Arboretum. In 1965 the Bay of Plenty Tree Society was given approval to begin planting and the Tauranga City Council undertook to cover the maintenance. It is now a world class facility with many thousands of trees covering 500+ species and a well known and popular recreational area covering some 190 Ha.

Another of this man’s enduring achievements was the establishment of Ngatuhoa Youth Lodge in the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park in 1967. It was his vision to establish an Outward Bound facility.  Many thousands of school children and other groups over the past 53 years have stayed there and enjoyed the confidence boosting outdoor activities, beautiful bush and the Te Rere I Oturu Falls.

So what was the background of this man and what drove him to do these things. It is quite hard to find information on him but he was a family man, Crete veteran, local farmer, poet and city councillor for at least one term retiring from Council in 1968.
at

1 comment:

  1. Raye Catran (Mrs)9 October 2024 at 20:38

    Hello. I am Raye Catran, daughter and eldest child of Bill Kennedy. Bill spent the first ten years of his life on a very steep sheep farm inland from Raetehi, educated by his mother. In 1920 the family moved to a farm in Pyes Pa, Tauranga and attended Greerton Primary School. Bill attended secondary school for two years and the Principal wanted him to eventually apply for a scholarship for medical school. Bill's father said no, he was needed on the farm. So he farmed until WW2 broke out and he was one of the first to enlist. He earned a Military Medal for leadership and bravery. My parents met while in the Middle East, my mother was a nurse with the British army. They married, had a weekend of honeymoon then went their separate ways, Dad back to the north Africa desert and Mum to Italy. At one point during the war Dad had a near miss from a missile that killed everyone nearby, and thus decided that when he came back to New Zealand he would do what he could to make the world a better place. He wrote poetry while away from New Zealand, showing his great love of his country and especially of the New Zealand bush. After the war he continued farming and he and my mother had four children. Bill was involved with many local committees with interests in the environment, trees and local politics. He died in 1994 at the age of 83.

    ReplyDelete