Obituary: Northland blind advocate George Phiskie: positive and amazing man

George Phiskie of Waipū, here with his dog Georgie, has been remembered as a superb communicator, inspirational advocate and all-round great man.

George Phiskie December 1, 1922 - July 22, 2018.

Dad was an excellent father and, as a parent myself, hard to emulate on many levels.

These included his mental and physical strength, inventiveness, creativity, determination (which could be defined as stubborn), a get-on-with-it attitude, communicator extraordinaire and, of course, his renowned sense of humour with an amazing ability to remember "jokes"!

Dad made up for his lack of eyesight by having 60/60 vision in his head, ie, he could "see" in detail what he wanted made and what materials were to be used, think through the idea and then go about making or describing it.

These projects ranged from small – nicks on gumboot rims to determine left and right - to large - wiring the house, building the concrete pig-sties and so on.

On many of the community projects, eg, building the Bream Bay College swimming pool and the Waipū Scouts den, Dad had a reliable group of workers he was able to call upon and I'm sure there was no doubt as to who was leading; his ability to manage people got things done.

In latter years, he still had the ideas but needed to convince others to make it for him.

"That is not safe!" was like a red rag to a bull when he was planning or attempting to do anything that even for a sighted person would be difficult. This comment was met with a forceful "If you don't try, you will never know!"

And he kept pushing the envelope on this one right up to his last days when he wanted to get around the house on his own and had difficulty understanding he just couldn't.

As a consequence we grew up with one of the best examples you could have regarding being able to achieve anything if you wanted and strived for it, with determination.

By the time we were 3, we were able to steer the tractor around the farm, up the hill and even on the road while Dad worked the peddles. From a young age, farm chores were the same as for many children of farming families with maybe the difference that we were expected to complete the job without supervision, attend to any medical problems like injections and catch any wayward calves on our own.

Dad was a loving and caring father who did all he could, regardless of constraints.

He was a life member of the NZ Blind Foundation and chief executive Sandra Budd said: "George was indeed a special person to us with an amazing history of contribution and support of blind people. His gentle humour, kind heart, positive and amazing can-do attitude were examples and an aspiration to us all."

She said she personally learnt so much from George, particularly about never letting disability define you, but to define yourself by the abilities you demonstrate in positivity and determination to succeed.

"We will miss him dreadfully as I know will the Whangārei community. George was iconic in our community and was one of the most inspirational blind people I have met."