Dave Prebensen wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty having worked as an engineer as well as being on council. Photo / File
Dave Prebensen wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty having worked as an engineer as well as being on council. Photo / File
Alan David Prebensen
October 14, 1932 – July 26, 2019.
Former Napier Mayor David Prebensen died on Friday, aged 86.
He had an 18-year-long career with council serving one term as deputy to Mayor Clyde Jeffery before being elected to the top job in 1983, serving for six years beforehis retirement.
Alan Dick served as deputy mayor for Prebensen from 1983-86, before succeeding him as mayor in 1989 serving for a 12-year-term.
He said that although during their time on council together they didn't always see things on the same page he always had the up most respect for him as a person and his work in the community.
"Although we didn't see everything eye to eye I have always had the up most respect for him," Dick said.
"Even after he retired from council he would always be seen around the councils as part of some of his other projects and would never hesitate to stop for a quick catch up."
Prebensen made an immediate impact after his first election in 1971 waging a campaign to save the Marine Parade Soundshell, which became earmarked by the Council for demolition as part of an aquarium development.
His career as an engineer, in which he established A.D.Prebensen Industrial Plastics in the Onekawa Industrial District, also saw him designing and making a time capsule placed in the council chambers in 1974 to mark 100 years since the founding of the city in the establishment of the Napier Borough Council in 1874.
But possibly his greatest legacy is the Hawke's Bay Museum of Technology, known as the Faraday Centre and this year marking its 40th year.
He also did a lot of work with the Faraday Centre and the display of Hawke's Bay Museum of Technology. Photo / File
During a previous Hawke's Bay Today story celebrating the museum's 40th anniversary Prebensen said that the history of older technology was important to show children where the world has been and how things worked many years ago.
"It provides that link because the older generations know how everything works here and what it is.
"They can explain back to the grandchildren, who have never seen it before."
The museum was established to save the Napier Municipal Electricity Department's no-longer-needed the 1923 Fullagar engine which had been the central piece of the city's electricity supply for many years.
His time, outside of family and especially post retirement from the council and his business, was dominated by his work with the centre as both manager and curator.
Among the merging of the engineering and civic capability's he was part of the response to the Cyclone Bola emergency in Wairoa in March 1988, producing the temporary piping flown from Napier by the Air Force to reconnect water supply lines broken in the collapse of the Wairoa Town Bridge.
Remembered in the name of Prebensen Drive, symbolically placed between the industrial districts of Onekawa and Pandora, he is survived by wife Pat, daughter Lynne and sons Tony and Andy, and his grandchildren.
