Charlie Murdoch: Unsung pillar of local community

A hardworking but largely unsung pillar of Tauranga's community who played an important role in the establishment of Matua School and Otumoetai Intermediate has died aged 88.
Charlie Murdoch, born near Dargaville, arrived in Tauranga with his recently separated mother in 1935 and, apart from military service in World War II, never left.
His huge involvement in the community stretched from sea scouts to St John and school committees to elderly care.
"He was very community orientated - he loved being around people," his daughter Susan said.
Known as a pragmatic sort of bloke, he left school at 14 to become a paint and paperhanging apprentice with P & R Styles.
A year later he bought a Z-Class yacht which he sailed in the harbour behind the Hairini causeway. His interest in boats led him to form the Southern Cross Sea Scouts in 1944, soon after his discharge from the army.
A developing interest in music, which included lessons on the banjo, was interrupted by the war. Despite his best efforts to thwart the system, varicose veins meant he never saw overseas service and his contribution to the war effort was as an infantry instructor.
Like everything else in his life, he threw himself into the job and never tired of telling his raw recruits: "My job is to teach you how to stay alive." In the space of only 19 months from joining the army in June 1941 he rose to the rank of 2nd lieutenant.
Mr Murdoch returned to his trade after the war and went into partnership with his brother-in-law Levis Pascoe. It was then he started his 16-year service with St John, undertaking public duties and driving the ambulance at nights and weekends.
He played indoor basketball for the True Blues and went on to represent Tauranga in the sport.
He married in 1950 and bought a 3000sq m section in Matua when the peninsula was still "way out in the country".
In those days, the Tilbys had a big farm on the corner and the Levers an orchard further down the gravel road from the Murdochs.
Shortly after his marriage he entered the transport industry, managing the Tauranga Bus Service for four years and Victor Transport for 12 years. He then spent four years in the paint and wallpaper department of Mann Hardware after which he joined Auckland Glass Co, a job which took him to retirement 12 years later at the age of 63.
He kept busy painting and paperhanging in his spare time for 10 years until he had a triple heart bypass.
One of his great social outlets was the Tauranga and then the Mount Maunganui Orphans Clubs - a convivial brotherhood who met to put on music hall-styled evenings. He was a member of the two clubs for 40 years including stints as president.
Mr Murdoch was on the foundation committees for the Matua School and the Otumoetai Intermediate, was a Rotarian and a committee member for the Tauranga IHC.
He spent 14 years on the committee of Hodgson House, including organising the rest home's monthly concerts, and was a member of the New Zealand Historical Aviation Society.
Mr Murdoch is survived by wife Patricia and daughters Susan and Pamela.