A man who became one of our own

SAD LOSS: Athol Johnson, speaking at Kaitaia college in 2012.

Athol Ernest Johnson was an Aucklander - he was born there on October 29, 1925, and died there on January 20, 2015. And he spent his first few years living in Mt Albert. But the Far North was to play a major role in shaping the man he was to become.

The relationship began when his father was appointed headmaster at Awanui School, where he became a pupil. He also attended Kaitaia College, albeit completing his secondary education at Mt Albert Grammar, but he returned in adulthood, teaching at Okaihau District High School for several years, then at Kaitaia College, where he arrived in 1950 and rose to the position of deputy principal.

He left Kaitaia for Penrose High School in 1958, embarked upon a one-year teaching exchange in the UK in 1966, and served as principal at Rodney College from 1967 to 1975.

He was much more than a teacher though. He was an Auckland softball representative in 1946-47, a Mangonui rugby (and coach/manager) in the 1950s, and thoroughly enjoyed bowls later in life. But beyond teaching his major passion was sailing, ending only in what wife Elizabeth describes as the last wonderful summer of 2013.

He began as a 12-year-old boy at Awanui with a selfmade corrugated iron boat with sails made by his mother. He duly graduated to grander vessels, sailing the coast from Mangonui to the Bay of Islands many times, and later from Auckland to Mangonui and back every summer, frequently with members of his family as passengers/crew.

"All his grandchildren have made the coastal trip, to our delight," Elizabeth said, although she could not be sure how delighted said grandchildren had been.

He was also a founding member of the Taipa Yacht Club and the Mangonui Cruising Club.

Athol's love of family and enormous pride in and love of his grandchildren, his love of and pride in his teaching, his love of sailing, his contribution to many committees, his later enjoyment of bowls, his delight in international travel and his writings over the last few years added up to a full and varied life of commitment and enjoyment, she said.

Athol and Elizabeth's son Leigh said his father's passing had not unanticipated. He had suffered a series of serious health issues over the previous 18 months, from which, at the end, there was no chance of return. He too noted that his father's formative years had been spent in the isolated Far North, and in the depth of the Great Depression.

"I recall Athol telling me that most of his classmates at Awanui were Maori, and, as a result, he was one of only a few Europeans I knew who were bilingual from childhood," he said.

"He also told me that when he got into trouble at school, and was going to get bashed up by other kids, his Maori friends protected him, and that his subsequent work in education, in budgeting assistance for the rural poor and time on various marae committees in the Far North and in lower Northland was simply him returning the favour in later life when the tables were turned."

And there was always the sea.

Leigh's parents had cruised off the Northland coast for more than 60 years, making their final voyage in 2014, to watch a grandson compete in a regatta on the Tamaki River.

"I can't speak for my sister, but this left me with a deep passion for the sea and all within, and a deep passion for North Auckland's beautiful and frequently dramatic coastal landscapes," he said.

"In their last years of sailing they were members of the Panmure Cruising Club, and much enjoyed the comradeship, advice, assistance and banter of other maritime legends with even more experience than them ...

"My father, to all intents and purposes, passed away in his togs in the water at the beach on a sunny summer's day in his 90th year," he said. "He was kept alive ... for the immediate family to say their goodbyes, long enough so that one member of the family could drive from Mangonui to Auckland for the same purpose. Then, gathered around him, many holding on to him with the respirator removed, we watched him die ... We would have had difficulty conceiving of a better way for him to pass on. "He was the last of his generation in the family whose lifespans covered well in excess of 100 years, the entire 20th Century and all its phenomenal events."