Rugby yarns, family history and tales of a "good fulla" were shared with the thousands who turned up to farewell Taneatua's Rob Shaw yesterday.
Mourners crammed into Whakatane's Liberty centre, spilling into a second auditorium and out onto the pavement, as representatives from all aspects of Mr Shaw's life stepped up to the microphone to talk about one of nature's gentleman, the man with the golden heart.
Principal of Taneatua School since 1997, Mr Shaw suffered a stroke on Saturday afternoon and died early Monday morning.
At his service, his family spoke of a hard-working man, born and raised in Taneatua, who loved his mother and was always on hand to help with siblings and nieces and nephews. His niece Kay Muir said she and all her cousins had all benefited from Uncle Rob's teachings. "Growing up with this man has been an incredible journey," Ms Muir said.
Taneatua School Board of Trustees chairman Richard Sisam said he had been at the helm of the board for as long as Mr Shaw had been the principal. "At his interview Rob said if he got the position, it would be the crowing of his teaching career and that carried sway with us."
Bay of Plenty Rugby Union member and great mate Ian Spraggon told some great rugby yarns and said how proud Mr Shaw was of his winning Whakatane Tai Mitchell teams from 1987 and 2007. "The teams those years did their coach proud," Mr Spraggon said.
Throughout his 50 years of involvement with rugby, Mr Shaw coached at all levels, from JAB rugby to the Taneatua seniors. He also took on every administration role available through both the Taneatua Club and the Eastern Bay of Plenty Union.
Many of the speakers touched on the tragedy Mr Shaw had to endure with the loss of his two "sons" in tragic circumstances. In June last year, he lost his whangai (adopted) son Hugh "Boy" Biddle after a landslide engulfed their Ohope home during heavy rain. It was the second "son" he had to let go after Greg Shaw, a man he described as his best mate, drowned while surfing at Omaio during Cyclone Ivy in 2004.
"While your heart had broken, you soldiered on because that's who you were," more than one person said.
But it was Rob's close friend and fellow principal Tony Holland who summed up his mate.
"What made you tick was the tamariki [children], everything you did was for them," Mr Holland said. "You were a teacher, a mentor to so many boys, you touched so many lives."
It was said that nobody would ever know how much money Mr Shaw had taken from his own wallet or how many kilometres he had driven in his own car, to make sure "his boys" had the gear they needed or were where they had to be.
Another friend Bob Thompson agreed a huge crater had been left with the death of Mr Shaw but said he had also created a gap that would hopefully be filled with one of the seedlings [children] he had sown.
Meanwhile, Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell has paid tribute to Mr Shaw, saying he will be terribly missed by the Taneatua community and by the wider Eastern Bay of Plenty.