It's a rare moment when she doesn't switch off from fretting over the need to better the lot of those not as young as they once were, but her's is no one-woman band. She's the type who insists Grey Power's a team effort, that she's merely their front person.
And a darn good job this woman with attitude's doing of it. Last year when her support crew began to dwindle (natural attrition's an unavoidable affliction in Grey Power's ranks) there were fears the branch would fold.
Rosemary did what she does so well ... she rallied the troops, the organisation's bounced back so successfully it now has a central city office, with Rosemary regularly its front-of-house problem solver.
She has the right credentials. Much of her working life was in clerical and managerial roles and she has a huge affinity with those less able to care for themselves, inspired by her six years as branch manager of Central Auckland's IHC - "providing services to 500 from the cradle to the grave". Her father founded sheltered workshops.
It helps her Grey Power workload that she has a PA - that's husband Allan. "I couldn't do what I do without him, I sometimes think he knows more about the organisation than I do."
Nor do the couple confine their attentions to those of senior years. They play key roles at the polar opposite of the age spectrum. "We are very involved in the lives of our little people [grand children and great grandchildren]."
The MacKenzies married when Rosemary was 19. "It's always amused me that I could be married and be having a baby at 20 but I wasn't considered old enough to vote." In those days you had to be 21.
Rosemary's a long-time political animal, classifying herself liberal.
"My father was staunchly National, my mother red hot Labour, Dad used to come home from the polling booth saying 'there, I've cancelled out your vote', I guess that made me middle of the road."
A 'Pom' by birth, she came to New Zealand at 10 and is a proud Kiwi. "I've got the Warrant of Fitness [Citizenship] to prove it", however the trauma of growing up in war-torn Britain's never left her: "I still flinch when I hear a siren."
The MacKenzies had their first introduction to Rotorua when they bought the Rerewhakaaitu store in 1976 . . . . "for townies we adapted pretty well".
But then came supermarkets and seven day trading, unable to compete the store closed.
Rosemary became the local IHC's office manager, but when Allan got a job as a technical teacher at Birkdale College the family returned north. Rosemary's Rotorua IHC experience made her a shoe-in to manage the Auckland branch.
"Until along came Jenny Shipley's decision that IHC wasn't the way to go, that was very upsetting [for clients], I shudder to think what happened to many of those poor people."
That's a very Rosemary MacKenzie thing to say; no regretful expressions of her own resulting job loss. What she does say is that she and Allan retreated back to Rerewhakaaitu, "we'd kept our home there".
For a while she commuted to various in-town jobs until logging trucks got the better of her. "I didn't want to die on State Highway 5."
Seven years ago the couple moved into town, with all the careful forethought Rosemary urges the Grey Power brigade to employ.
"Be very clinical about it, find somewhere near medical facilities, transport and where you can be as self-sufficient as possible, we have an edible garden."
Before the move the couple had joined Grey Power, Rosemary drawn by her interest in things political.
At the time the organisation was battling to abolish on-road drivers' tests for 80-year-olds.
"It was very unfair, some protested very strenuously because their age group had fewer accidents, Grey Power took up the cause, had a victory, my interest kind of grew from there".
She's into her fourth term as president, it'll be her last, she can't abide those who hold office indefinitely.
One of her biggest worries is the council's signal that rates will rise by 3 per cent a year into what seems like affinity. "Greater minds than mine are working on a country-wide solution."
What words of wisdom has she for those of more senior years?
"Become tech savvy, it's the only way to stay in touch with the real world . . . get with it."
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ROSEMARY MACKENZIE (NEE CLAYTON)
Born: Scarborough, 1940
Education: Primary in the UK, Papakura High, Howick District High
Family: three sons, one daughter, eight grandchildren, five great grandchildren
Interests: Family, knitting socks "because I don't believe socks should be boring, I knit all sorts of colours and patterns", gardening, reading "anything and everything, I'm a news junkie", Grey Power
On Grey Power: "It's the one stop for all older New Zealanders if they're going to retain a life worth living."
Personal Philosophy: "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you."
