John Shannon in his workplace.
It was a massive tribute to a strong community man when more than 500 people attended the funeral under the public grandstand at Woodville Racecourse for John Shannon.
John, who died earlier this month at age 61, was a butcher by trade.
He moved from Whanganui to Woodville at the age of 6 with his parents, was educated at Woodville School and Tararua College and completed his butcher’s apprenticeship with Tony Herlihy in Woodville.
After nine seasons at the freezing works he bought the old butcher shop in Woodville in partnership with his wife Patricia and settled in to create a reliable and creative service for the community.
He was a foundation member of the NZ Rural Butchers Association, and was innovative, travelling to Germany to do a masterclass in sausage partisanship.
He developed the darkroom technique for homekill and set up the world’s first homekill butchery website.
He was dedicated to spreading his knowledge about butchery and was awarded Rural Educator of the Year for his contribution to training.
But John was not about awards. It was his interaction with the community for which he was so respected and loved.
He was always looking for ways to improve the community, being a lifetime member of the Woodville Racing Club, a member of the Tararua Men’s Cancer Club, and was president of Woodville Lions Club at the time of his death.
When Merrylees Hotel and Norsewood School ran hunting competitions John was on hand to convert the unwanted carcasses into mince for distribution through food agencies like the Māori wardens and two iwi.
When the pandemic happened, John processed huge quantities of donated meat into mince for distribution free to the community again through local foodbanks.
He repeated this after Cyclone Gabrielle, sending an estimated half-tonne of mince to the same groups. The Ruahine Māori Wardens recently awarded him a certificate for Outstanding Service to the Tararua Community.
As a sign of deep respect, at the end of his funeral Ngāti Kahungunu, who had worked closely with John over decades, performed an emotional haka, bore the casket to the cemetery, and performed several waiata before helping bury the man.
John, a horse racing enthusiast, joined the local Woodville Racing Club at age 18, becoming a member of the committee in 1994, serving for 23 years, seven of them as vice-president. He was made a life member in 2014.
At the Woodville-Pahīatua race day earlier this month, the sixth race was named the John Shannon Memorial in his honour and club president Andrew Bolton dedicated the race to the crowd, outlining John’s contributions to the club. Queen of Spades won in a close finish – just the way John would have liked it.
In recognition of his love of things equestrian, John’s funeral was held at the racecourse and took the form of a race meeting in which John was in the last race.
Eight speakers from John’s past told of his life, keeping the crowd amused with anecdotes of his interactions with people from all walks of life and emphasising his generosity of money and time. It was a stunning occasion.
John’s brother Christopher summed up John saying: “When I see John, I see a man large as life, huge in personality, vibrant and expansive, bringing a touch of authenticity to everyone he engaged. John was real ‘in your face’ real and as warm as the sun.”
John will be missed in so many ways. He was a local icon with a heart of gold. Tararua extends its condolences to his wife Pat, children Daniel and Lauren and family.
Dave Murdoch is a part-time photo-journalist working for the Bush Telegraph and based at Dannevirke. He has covered any community story telling good news about the district for the last ten years.