Obituary: Harry Holmwood
Harry Holmwood: 1946-2011
Golden Bay lost a staunch advocate, a tireless worker, a shrewd politician and a great community servant with the recent death of Harry Norman Holmwood. Born in Golden Bay in 1946, Harry died here on November 19 after a very brief illness.
Harry was an extremely hard-working man. He was meticulous in everything he did - whether that was selecting stock for the family farm, laying out and tending gardens, producing woodwork projects, reading the agenda papers for a meeting or restoring his beloved vintage machines. Once he decided he was going to do something, he found out all he could about what was involved so that he could do it very well.
The son of a Ministry of Works bulldozer driver and Tarakohe cement worker, Harry grew up with an appreciation of practical skills and a sense of pride in a job well done. “Do it once, do it right,” was one of his catch-cries.
In his lifetime he had a variety of jobs, sometimes two or three at the same time, because he was so highly motivated. At different times he delivered telegrams and mail, ran his own contracting business, worked at the dairy factory as a boiler-man and gardened at the cottage hospital. He eventually went dairy farming, despite his wife Dianne’s objections, because he firmly believed that, by working for himself, he could better provide for his family and get ahead in the world.
As a farmer he was renowned for his attention to detail, his tidiness and his propensity for hard work. He learned the skills of artificial insemination for his own herd and then took on the job of AI technician for a firm working on farms in the district. Harry expected others to work as hard as he did, and people who wanted to be employed on his farm usually got only one chance to prove themselves.
When Harry retired from farming he took a job as a school bus driver on the Wainui run and poured a lot of his energy into the immaculate vintage machinery museum he and Dianne had founded at their Patons Rock property. The most prized exhibit there was Harry’s pride and joy, “Little Honey”, his beautifully restored 1900 traction engine.
Harry entered local body politics in the 1980s, after a stint on a school committee and involvement in the ratepayers’ association. He was a member of the Golden Bay County Council at the time of the unexpected and enforced amalgamation with other local bodies to form the Tasman District. He continued to serve on the Golden Bay Community Board for 12 years, nine of those as chairman.
As a chairman, Harry was demanding and punctilious. He expected board members to be well prepared and he had no time for what he called “waffling on”. He ran things with a firm hand in the Bay and formed some good working relationships with council staff over the Hill. Harry was regarded as a man who knew the system and knew the right people to talk to.
Locals who went to Harry with a concern over local body matters say that he always did what he said he was going to do and that he did not require recognition or thanks for the things he accomplished for others. He was a Justice of the Peace for 20 years and took part in the selection process for other JPs in the district.
Harry’s enduring local love was the Golden Bay Medical Centre. He was the driving force behind the efforts to raise money for the major upgrade of the original centre; $70,000 was raised in seven months and many of those involved credit Harry with the leadership and determination to achieve that feat. In the last few years he was once again a leading figure in “Operation Jump Start”, which raised $35,000 for community defibrillators.
Even when he was suffering his final illness, Harry was actively engaged in a push to have a new medical centre situated at Rototai.
Though he had a naturally stern disposition, Harry loved children and they were drawn to him. In the 1970s he initiated the family Christmas party at the dairy factory, making it more child-centred than previously, and he was an especially loving grandfather. His granddaughters Lilly and Ella looked forward to their visits to Nana and Grandad’s. Harry’s unshakeable decision to be buried in the Richmond cemetery was part of the family’s planned move out of the Bay to be closer to the grandchildren. The wider family has already enjoyed a picnic there - vindicating, they say, a decision that puzzled a few Golden Bay people.
Harry Holmwood is remembered as a man who set great store by his good name, who valued honesty, reliability, order, determination and strength. He was astute and shrewd and had a great memory for detail.
Harry is survived by his wife Dianne, his son Glen, his daughter Bronwyn and his granddaughters Lilly and Ella.
Neil Wilson
