Lawyer and maritime advocate. Died in Auckland last month, aged 61.
In a 1990 letter to the New Zealand Yachting Federation, Martin Strong wrote: "There are 60 million sheep in New Zealand and to that you can add the boating administrators of Auckland."
That heartfelt broadside was brought on byhis sense of injustice and frustration at public inaction when the Government was carving up and selling off assets built up over 128 years by successive Auckland Harbour Boards and the people of the region.
Almost all the recreational assets were destined to be sold or to become cash cows.
The elected harbour boards had established trusts to ensure that some income was in place to cover future recreational and environmental needs. Central Government was passing retrospective legislation to dismantle those trusts.
Mr Strong had an abiding passion for the Waitemata Harbour and for fair play. While others sat back he emerged as a catalyst, devoting his considerable legal skills to campaigns that led to money being made available to the Marine Rescue Centre and the National Maritime Museum. His efforts also saw the abandonment of the Auckland Regional Council's plan to increase swing mooring fees by 700 per cent. Boaties had a voice and their family silver remained unsold. A constant and effective thorn in the side of a regiment of bureaucrats, Mr Strong never sought - or received - much recognition for his labours. At the time of his death he was chairman of the Hauraki Gulf Protection Society, campaigning for the maritime park and assisting in a dispute between the Royal Akarana Yacht Club and the Auckland City Council.
An old boy of Wellington College, he graduated from Victoria University and was admitted to the bar in 1966. Soon afterwards he became a partner in the firm at which he worked for the rest of his life, now Kendall Strong and Company.
Sailing and legal friends will help ferry his ashes from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron at 7.52 pm tomorrow, to be scattered off A Buoy, as he requested.
The journey will take him from Westhaven past the Maritime Museum, the Marine Rescue Centre and the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, all of which played a major part in his life.
Martin Strong is survived by his son Andrew and daughter Rachel.
