A Napier visionary and innovator remembered

Ian Mills as the National Aquarium prepared for reopening after major renovation and extension in 2002. Photo / File

Ian Leslie Mills

September 4, 1928 - August 25, 2021

It's hard to find one word to describe Ian Mills completely, but "visionary" and "innovative" might come close for a man who spent 40 years on a history of Napier's street names, started a "fish" club which led to a major aquarium in Napier, and sketched on a shoebox lid a bird that became the greatest rugby mascot in the land.

But they were just some of the pages in the life of Ian Mills, who once said his life broke into four parts – books, painting, retailing and the aquarium, and who died last Wednesday, just 11 days short of his 93rd birthday.

Younger brother Graeme says Ian, son of a shoe shop proprietor and one of three brothers who each spent a lifetime in footwear retailing, was "the star" of the family, which also included sister and nurse, Beverley.

Former Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott, now chairman of the Napier Art Deco Trust, recalls meeting him just once but bought his 280-page book "What's In a Name," first published in 1998, and then bought each updated reprint.

Referring to them often, she says he left a lot of "legacies" and adds: "I think he's made a huge contribution to our history and our knowledge of it. He has certainly left a lasting legacy."

The book had its roots in his days working part-time in a petrol station, answering the questions of motorists seeking directions around the city and environs. He took to the streets to learn more about them, and started producing a more-purposed small street-map he would continue updating and sell for about 15 years amid a growing obsession about the histories behind the names.

The aquarium and Hawkeye both emerged from ideas hatched in his Hastings St Napier CBD shoe shop - the aquarium germinated from a meeting to form a fish club because of public interest in tropical fish he had on display, while Hawkeye was sketched on the lid of a shoe box and built in just 10 days to sideline at a Ranfurly Shield match.

Born Ian Leslie Mills in Invercargill on September 4, 1928, he also wrote other books, about fish, and was an accomplished artist who could have made a living out of that work alone, his brother says.

After a few years in Timaru, he, parents Les and Dinah, and elder brother Rex and infant brother Graeme moved to Napier in 1938, his father managing Stephenson Shoe Company, which he later bought and renamed Mills Shoe Company in Emerson St, starting the Mills family Hawke's Bay shoe shop legacy which spans more than 70 years and continues to this day.

Ian Mills' recreation of Hawkeye, a modern artwork of the legendary rugby mascot he created in the 1960s. Photo / File

Having attended Nelson Park Primary, Napier Intermediate and Napier Boys High School (1943-1946) he married Yvette Lois Patterson in 1952 and they had two children, son Christopher and daughter Deborah.

Passionate about art and design, he began work at Coull, Sommerville & Wilkie in Christchurch, in their art department, and also worked in retail window-dressing in both Wellington and Auckland.

After six years away he returned to Napier, and was soon running the shoe shop, but his artistic skills were also soon being recognised spreading from signs, ticket-writing
and window displays for chain store McKenzie's to more life-like creations on Blossom Festival and Napier centennial parade floats.

Teaming up with Gordon Dine and Russell Spiller, the meeting he called in his shop led ultimately to the establishment of a club and aquarium beneath Napier War Memorial Hall, and establishing what is now known as the National Aquarium of New Zealand on Marine Parade, the exterior of which was once adorned with another of his models – a dolphin and a shark. He was patron of the aquarium society.

It was in the same shop that Daily Telegraph chief reporter and public relation officer Jock Stevenson, popping in for a cuppa, raised with him the idea of producing a big bird – 12 feet (about 3.7 metres) tall.

Within minutes he had sketched on a shoebox lid the image of a magpie, which just 10 later appeared for the first time on the sidelines of a Ranfurly Shield match and is still doing the job now more than 55 years later.

He lived in Taradale Rd, Napier, for more than 60 years up to last year and passed away at Brittany House, Hastings.

Son Christopher died in a mishap at Mahia, wife Yvette died in 2007, and late brother Rex's wife, Val, died at the weekend. He is survived by younger brother Graeme, of Hastings, daughter Deborah Gimblett, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

With the Covid-19 restrictions a public funeral has not been possible but the family is planning a memorial service to commemorate his life at a later date.