World War II veteran Hugh Harrison whole life was influenced by his wartime experiences.
The 93-year-old Te Puke-born stalwart Tauranga RSA member died peacefully on December 22 leaving behind his second wife Melville, 89, sons Paul and John and their partners, his step-children Rex, Andrew, Beryl and two grand-daughters Maree and Melonie.
Eldest son Paul Harrison, 67, said his father, who suffered a massive stroke in August, was most unlike many returned servicemen because he was prepared to talk and write about his war-time experiences.
"Dad always told the family things and he said to us war was the most embedded experience of his life and everything he did since was very much influenced by those experiences," he said.
Mr Harrison, who was a member of the Hauraki Territorial Regiment prior to the start of World War II, saw active service in Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, and Italy between 1942 to 1945 - firstly as a dispatch rider and signaller in North Africa and then as a platoon driver mechanic with a divisional NZ ammunition company of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Italy.
Mr Harrison witnessed mass bombings at the Battle of Monte Cassino, something he could never forget, and the human toll of war was something he wanted other people to always remember, his son said.
Because of dad's wartime experiences it really steered a lot of interest in making sure people never forget about the sacrifices other people had made, especially those who were killed.
Mr Harrison said one of his father's precious memento brought back from overseas was a small bracelet which had been attached to the arm of a young girl killed at Cassino.
Hugh Harrison's father Arthur Charles Harrison, who lived to be 100, was a light machine gunner and mounted rifleman in the Auckland Mounted Rifles and served in the same Middle East region as his son during World War I.
Hugh Harrison was the middle child of a family of four - his eldest sister Edith Merriman is deceased, Margaret, 96, lives in Auckland and Mary, 91, is in a retirement home in Tauranga.
After the war ended Mr Harrison returned to the building trade, a trade he took up after leaving Tauranga High School at age 15, having finished a carpentry apprenticeship.
He and his first wife Venlin who he met in Warkworth in 1942, married in 1946 and the couple settled in Tauranga in a house Mr Harrison built on the corner of 16th Ave and Fraser St - one of the first homes built in the area.
Mr Harrison and a mate Merv Wade went into partnership, establishing Wade and Harrison Builders and helped build a lot of the first homes in the Otumoetai subdivision.
Paul Harrison said his father was a master builder and an A-grade mechanic, and could turn his hand to most things.
In early 1950s his father worked as a building inspector for State Advances - the forerunner to Housing Corporation - responsible for inspecting state houses from Waihi to Te Teko, he said.
"I remember spending many, many hours with dad as he travelled around doing his inspections."
In 1957 Mr Harrison transferred to Rotorua and in 1960 was promoted to area building inspector for the whole West Coast region. He transferred back to Tauranga in 1963 to take up a senior position overseeing all the work of the building inspectors, before establishing Hugh Harrison Registered Valuers in 1964, a business he ran until his retirement in 1974.
That included travelling the country doing property valuations for a number of commercial and residential property developers including Beasley Homes and housing societies.
Mr Harrison said his father was taught to be a perfectionist when doing his training as a chippie and applied that to everything he did.
"Dad had beautiful hand skills and he could craft almost anything. My father was an absolutely practical man, and had a great eye for detail. He firmly believed if you did something, you needed to do it once and do it right.
"My father also kept meticulous business records and kept a daily diary since 1940 and wrote down five things he had done each day. He had an awesome inquisitive mind and if there wasn't much to report in his diary, dad would grab a dictionary and learn a couple of new words and their meanings and write them down in his diary so he didn't forget."
Mr Harrison, a retired NZ Airforce squadron leader and a military historian, said his father, and grandfather had not only influenced him and his 37-year-old daughter Maree in their career choices, but instilled in them the importance of service.
Maree had served in East Timor with the NZ Airforce, he said.
Mr Harrison was a Tauranga Te Papa Rotarian, having received Rotary's top award the Paul Harris Fellow in February 1988.
During the 1960s he also served as president of Tauranga RSA and as a stalwart RSA member he was fully involved in the arrangements for many of the Anzac Day commemorations.
He also drove the campaign for memorial plaques to be erected in Memorial Park.
In 2000 Mr Harrison became re-acquainted with his second wife and first girlfriend Melville, now aged 89, who he first met in 1940, and the couple married in 2002.
A service for Mr Harrison will be held at Hillsdene Chapel, 143 13th Avenue, Tauranga from 1pm on today, followed by a private cremation.
Sandra Conchie