Obituary: Harry Bean

Henry "Harry" Bean

* Henry "Harry" James Bean, local body politician. Died aged 84.

Harry Bean had the distinction of being only the second, and the last, mayor in the history of the old Mt Wellington Borough.

And by the curiosity of the myriad of Auckland local body amalgamations which took place about 15 years ago, he was also the first and last mayor of Tamaki City. The most important point about Bean was that he served the citizens of Mt Wellington and Panmure on councils for almost 40 years.

He was first elected to the Mt Wellington Borough Council in the mid-1950s. When Bean became a councillor Robert McCulloch was installed as mayor, a job he kept for 22 years until 1974, when Bean took over.

Few councils in Auckland can have presented such a united front. For virtually all its history the council members were solid Labour.

By 1983 there had been only three mayoral contests in the borough. Bean, a usually affable presence in the mayoral chair, simply assured people that the council aimed to involve the whole community in decisions.

There is little doubt most of the citizens found their council a reliable and acceptable face of traditional labour values. And there was a profitable Mt Wellington Licensing Trust for a time, so the council was able to build things like community and sports facilities and the Swim-o-rama by the Panmure Lagoon.

Bean's approach at his usually unopposed mayoral candidature at local body elections was to assert that the borough was "pretty well organised now".

Apart from his local body service he worked for 35 years as a supervisor with the AHI Glassworks in Mt Wellington.

He was involved with many community organisations, although his favourite was the Mt Wellington Rugby League Club of which he was a founder and patron.

He was mayor of Tamaki City from 1986-9. The combination of the Mt Wellington and Otahuhu boroughs had a combined population of just over 20,000 which qualified Tamaki to apply to be called a city.

In retirement Bean and his wife, Jean, lived at Whangamata. She predeceased him. They had five children.