Obituary: Lloyd Morgan

Lloyd Morgan, the only New Zealander to have led the 1.4 million-strong Lions Clubs International, has died in Tauranga, aged 83.

Mr Morgan was International President of Lions Club International in 1979-80 and was actively involved in the club and in community work for more than 40 years.

As patron of the Lloyd Morgan Lions Charitable Trust - set up in his honour in 1980 - he helped raise millions of dollars for charitable causes in New Zealand and the South Pacific.

"Lloyd was a great humanitarian," said the chairman of the trust, Ron Luxton.

"He devoted a large part of his life to helping others, and through the trust his commitment to community service and development will live on forever."

The trust has supported hundreds of projects, from being a major funder for New Zealand's liver transplant unit, through to providing a mountain wheelchair for a paraplegic in Tuvalu.

Mr Luxton said that in many ways Mr Morgan's life was a model of Kiwi spirit, overcoming early adversity to succeed in his own life and business, and then directing his energy to help others.

Lloyd Morgan was born in Paekakariki, north of Wellington, the son of a railway worker.

When he was 11, his father was killed in a train accident.

Lloyd's older brother also died a short time later and, at the age of just 14, Lloyd became the family breadwinner at the beginning of the Depression.

"I took a job chopping wood when I was 14 years only," he once told Lions Magazine.

"The pay was 10 shillings a week. That may not seem like much, but I needed it to support my family, and I was happy to have the job."

Despite having to leave school, he continued his education at night.

He worked in a clothing store and then as the head booking agent in New Zealand for Fox Films.

When the Second World War broke out he volunteered for the Army and was sent to officer training school before being commissioned.

He served in North Africa and Italy with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, rising to the rank of captain. After the war he took a position with a small country hotel in what was to become a lifetime association with the hotel industry.

In the early 1950s he became part owner of a hotel in Lower Hutt, eventually building a multihotel business called Family Hotels.

He joined the Lions in 1960 when he helped found the Lower Hutt club.

As with most things in his life, Mr Morgan threw his heart and energy into the world's largest service organisation.

Between 1962 and 1967 he held almost every top position in the organisation in New Zealand, from club president to chairman of Lions in New Zealand and the South Pacific.

He was an international director of Lions Clubs International in 1971-72 and in 1976 was elected 3rd vice-president of LCI, a position that led to him becoming international president of Lions in 1979.

He is the only person from Australia or New Zealand to have held the position.