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Home / Rotorua Daily Post

You won't wrench Frank from his job

<b>KELLY MAKIHA</b>
Rotorua Daily Post·
12 Sep, 2006 02:59 AM3 mins to read

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At 80, Frank Martin refuses to retire.
The Rotorua man has been a mechanic for more than 65 years and now finds himself working for the men he employed three decades ago as apprentices.
He's rated the best staff member at Rotorua workshop Birchall and Maunder - always
the first to arrive and the last to leave.
If there's one thing Frank can't abide, it's laziness.
"We live in a great country, you've got to get out and do things ... I've had a great life."
During that "great life" he captained the Bay of Plenty rugby team in 1949 and 1950, played against the Lions and Australian rugby teams, served two years in the army in the occupational forces in Japan and became a life member of the Arawa Swimming Club.
Most people start to think about retiring at 65 - not Frank. About that age he was made redundant from the New Zealand Forestry Service where he ran the Central Plant and Kaingaroa workshops.
It was during his workshop days he gave apprenticeships to the likes of George Maunder, Bryce Birchall and Tony Middlemiss - mechanics for whom he now works.
But when forestry hit quiet times, retiring to his fishing haven at his Maketu beach house was the last thing on Frank's mind.
Instead, he went to work for one of his four daughters in her superette in Fenton Park. A few years later, Birchall and Maunder offered him a job and he's been there since.
Even when Frank was a boy he worked after school delivering groceries around Rotorua on a push bike.
At 15 his interest in cars saw him start a five-year apprenticeship.
He doesn't work to become rich.
"There is nothing wrong with being a battler but we have done all right because apart from our first house, I have never bought anything unless I could pay for it, never borrowed money."
The thought of retiring bores Frank and he doesn't think his wife, Gladys, would like it much either. The secret to a good marriage, he reckons, is to not spend too much time together.
Frank reckons he and his wife are an ideal pair.
"My wife has never drunk, never smoked, never worked and is never wrong."
Gladys is a fit and healthy 80-year-old who spends her days taking "elderly" people - younger than her - to craft class.
George Maunder said Frank had an old school work ethic that was hard to find. "He is good for the young guys, he coaches them along and relays his work experience to them. And he's a laugh a minute."

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