When the prison service was looking for chaplains in the early 1970s, the Rev David Connor thought he'd give it a go.
He eventually retired as executive manager of the Prison Chaplaincy Service 35 years later.
Mr Connor has been awarded a Queen's Service Medal for services to
prisoner welfare.
During his training as a Presbyterian minister, Mr Connor undertook a three-month course in prison chaplaincy. He worked as assistant chaplain at Mt Crawford Prison in Wellington, at Wi Tako Prison, now Rimutaka, and Paparua Prison in Christchurch.
His first position as a fulltime chaplain was at Waikune Prison Farm near National Park in 1973. The facility, which closed in 1986, housed about 110 prisoners and had a staff of about 25.
"The only reason we knew the outside world still existed was because a train went through twice a day," he said. "With such a small staff, I did everything the guards didn't - ran the library, organised prisoners' aid, helped with clothing."
The next move was to Kaitoke Prison, near Wanganui. This later merged with Wanganui City Prison, a minimum-security facility known in the service as "the old man's prison" because it was so close to the hospital.
Mr Connor moved to Auckland in 1984 as chaplain of the Auckland medium-security facility at Paremoremo, and also worked at Mt Eden Prison.
"Providing pastoral care is the main focus of a prison chaplain. It's not about solving [prisoners'] problems for them, it's about helping them solve their own problems."
Mr Connor helped to set up Project Good Book, which gives books to prison libraries.
