Now, after all this time, he has released his first book, Te Toki me te Whao, which is dedicated to Maori tool technology.
The book is a historical record as well as a practical guide in the use of Maori tools and technology, supported by more than 80 clear line drawings done by Mr Fugill, and colour photos. The book details in easy to understand language a wealth of information about the historical and contemporary manufacture and use of tools as well as details about the ancestors who used them.
"It was important to me to make the book for everyone, from a layman's point of view."
Mr Fugill was given his first Maori stone adze (a tool for carving) when he was 9.
"I was fascinated by it. I swapped it for some comics. To me it was a real thing that someone had made 300 to 400 years ago."
The interest was spurred from there and he soon began to collect more tools and learn what they meant and how they were used. Today he has about 30 stone adzes at his home.
Growing up, Mr Fugill was always in the woodshed with his pocket knife carving into old bits of wood.
"I was good at art at school but dumb in everything else. Teachers were never too happy with me."
In 1962, Mr Fugill's parents gave him a set of carving tools and books on Maori wood carving - and then he was off.
The late Rotorua historian Don Stafford would write articles in the Rotorua Daily Post and he would cut them out and put them in boxes he kept with other pieces of Maori history, all good references for his carvings.
In 1966, Mr Fugill decided he wanted to apply for the institute's carving school.
"I came up to get an application form and I remember my father saying to me 'it will be a hard road to hoe, they think you are Pakeha'."
The photograph on his desk was used as part of his application, as undeniable proof he was indeed Maori (descended from Ngati Ranginui and Tainui).
The institute even sent someone around to his house to interview him - something which apparently wasn't common practice - but Mr Fugill suspected it was because they didn't believe he was Maori.
"He looked at my carving and I gave him the history of what I had done. I remember him saying 'you know more about it than I do boy'."
He noticed the interviewer wrote the words "highly recommended" in his notebook.
"I got a letter on Christmas Eve in 1966 to say you have been accepted into the carving school and I started on January 15, 1967, which was an important date because it was my birthday."
After his three-year diploma, he remained at the institute as a tutor and later became the master carver.
He has many great carvings to his name, including Te Matatini stage, and an ongoing project made from bronze that is being made at the institute as a request by former Prime Minister Helen Clark as a gift for the United Nations.
Mr Fugill's book, which is being published by Oratia Books, was officially launched at a function at Te Puia on Friday night.
"I have always wanted to write a book. I was down at McLeod's Booksellers one day and [owner] David Thorp said he could put me in touch with a friend of his, who is a publisher [Peter Dowling].
"For me it's something I've always wanted to do but was frightened to do so I hope people enjoy it."
He said he had his wife, Nor Fugill, to thank for helping to write the book, as he wrote all the notes and she typed them.
He is a little sad his parents, Jim and Dorothy Fugill, didn't get to see him publish his first book because his mother died in 2009 and father in 2010.
There's also a small part of him who would like to find his previous secondary school teachers and show them that he didn't turn out too badly after all.
