banner
Coming Events
Tuesday 23 June at 5pm, Club Meeting via Zoom
 
Guest Speaker Jay Jaiganesh
Jay will give us some of her background and discuss the life and times of a Senior IT Consultant at Ernst and Young.
 
To join this meeting copy and paste the URL below into your browser
 
 
OR
 
use meeting id 934 9097 9441 and password RCK
 
 
Duties (please arrange a substitute if you can't attend)
 
Opening Thought : Henk Rood
 
Speaker Introduction : Barry Taylor
 
Viewpoint : Luke Yiavasis

Tuesday 30 July at 6pm for 6:30pm, Changeover Dinner, The Pines, Houghton Bay
 
A combined changeover dinner with members from Wellington South and Courtenay Place clubs.
 
Tuesday 14 July at 6pm, Club Meeting, Marsden School Hall
 
Speaker – Jim Johnston on the energy scene in New Zealand
 
Tuesday 28 July at 6pm, Club Meeting, Marsden School Hall
 
Rebecca Matthews, Wellington City Councillor, Onslow-Western Ward
 
Tuesday 11 August at 6pm, Club Meeting, Marsden School Hall
 
Speaker Christine Hurley, Rotary Club of Wellington
“Rotary Gives Every Child a Future Project”
 
Thursday 27 August at 7pm, Election Meeting, Karori Normal School Hall
 
In conjunction with the Karori Residents Association we will be running a meeting for the Wellington Central parliamentary candidates. Keep this date free to question the candidates prior to what is shaping up as important and interesting election.
David Stephens, Life Member

It was a great pleasure for me as President, along with Past Presidents Doug Langford and David Watt, on behalf of the Board and the Club to present a Certificate of Life Membership in the Rotary Club of Karori to David Stevens for his outstanding service and commitment to Rotary, at his apartment in Molesworth St on Wednesday 10 June.

 
 

 

David and his wife Ann, greeted us with an afternoon tea and a sharing memories in Rotary activities. David has been prevented for health reasons from continuing his active membership in the Club, but we will welcome their attendance as best they are able to future events that we put on.

 

David joined the Rotary Club of Karori in 1989 having been in senior management in the National Bank of New Zealand and a Rotarian in Dunedin and the Downtown Rotary Club in Auckland prior to moving to Wellington in 1989. David was made a Paul Harris Fellow by the Downtown Club in 1988. He has maintained active involvement over many projects for our Club down the years and he recently took over the chairmanship of the Charitable Trust following the passing of Rowland Woods. His knowledge, skills and experience on wider financial management issues has been invaluable to the Club over the years.

Club Meeting, 9 June, via Zoom

John Barton opened the meeting with some interesting thoughts and quotes. He cited Shakespeare by Bill Bryson which made it clear that pandemics are not new. In the 1500s and 1600s many towns and cities in the UK were in lockdown with the city gates in London closed at 4pm. Even theatres and brothels were closed, so isolation was not a new thing. John closed with an interesting saying that he found during lockdown time, “Don’t join the circus unless you can ride two horses at the same time”.

 

Adrian Humphris (above) gave us a presentation on the history of Karori. Adrian is President of the Karori Historical Society, Team Leader for Wellington City Archives, and a prominent writer on the history of our capital city. He gave us an outline of the role and achievements of the Karori Historical Society over many years since its formation in 1973. Adrian took over the Presidency of the Society from Judith Burch who wrote the History of Karori and its people some years ago. He said their priorities were to promote and share the history of Karori with its citizens and to support historical projects and to advance research and the study of people and places associated with Karori.

 

Like many organisations with older members, Adrian said the challenge was finding younger people interested in their history and to engage them in projects that they would like to advance. In response to members on the future of such activities Adrian agreed that they wanted to engage more with schools and to get out and about more in addition to their meetings with speakers. He pointed to the success of recent publications about Karori which has provided a great platform for people to learn more about Karori’s history, Judith Burch’s publication and update of the book on Karori Streets history first produced by Will Chapman and Kitty Wood, with updates last year by Judith.

 

He pointed to activities being undertaken by the Friends of the Karori Cemetery, the second largest cemetery in New Zealand, the growth of interest in Wrights Hill and its military history, and gaining the support of Rotary and other community leadership groups to enhance support for new initiatives and to bring in wider community support and appreciation for our suburb and its place in the history of Wellington.

Vale Pat Duncan

Members, wives and partners in the Rotary Club of Karori were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of a former active member of the Club, Pat Duncan, earlier in the month.

Pat and Lyn Duncan were popular members of the Club and within our Karori community. Pat, who owned a signwriting business in Karori, had been ill for a short time and passed away peacefully in Hutt Hospital, aged 83, on 10 June.

 

He joined the Rotary Club of Karori in the 1991/92 Rotary year and was active throughout his membership helping numerous projects and providing signage for many events that the Club engaged in. He was made a Paul Harris Fellow in 2003.

 

Pat and Lyn lived on Karori Road, close to the offices of Ray White Real Estate. After selling the signwriting business some years ago Pat and Lyn moved to Eastbourne where Pat joined the Pencarrow Rotary Club and continued his active involvement in Rotary and in other community activities in Eastbourne. Lyn also took a deep interest in the Pencarrow Club and was its bulletin editor for some time. She has continued her deep interest in craft work.

 

Pat maintained his close association with Rotary in Karori, with his many friends here and helping our Club with the promotion of the Karori Community Book Fair.

 

A memorial service to celebrate Pat’s life will be held at a later date.