City engineer heads for a well earned retirement

Ian McGowan's life as a professional engineer has been changing relentlessly.
And he has thrived on it.
Yesterday the Toronto-born deputy chief executive cleared out his desk at the Wanganui District Council and contemplated a form of retirement that no doubt will be eventful.
When he's not enjoying travel, reading, wine and golf he'll have community projects and engineering activities to work on.
Throughout his engineering career Mr McGowan has been caught up in change ? in fact, often managing it.
Fortunately, he's one of those special people who relish opportunities arising from change.
He arrived in Wanganui in 1984 as Ministry of Works resident engineer, succeeding Gerry Sanderson, and later became a key officer in the Wanganui city/district council.
His mother's family had been in Canada for a couple of generations and his father's family had moved there from Scotland in 1924.
"My father had spent quite a bit of time in New Zealand when he was travelling the world," Mr McGowan said. "He always wanted to come back.
"Most of my family were military people, including my father who served in both world wars."
In fact, Ian McGowan was heading in the same direction, to be an officer cadet in the Air Force, but failed a medical examination.
So he set out as a draughtsman at Papatoetoe City Council, studied part-time to gain his engineering degree at Auckland University and then joined the Ministry of Works.
"One of the first jobs I worked on was New Zealand's first satellite receiving station, at Warkworth."
When he moved to Whangarei for two and a half years Mr McGowan was heavily involved in road engineering.
For eight months he worked for Foreign Affairs in Western Samoa as a technical aid expert. Then he moved to the Huntly power project for four years, engaged mainly on chimney construction, cladding and structural steel work.
His next job was back in Auckland (where both sets of parents lived), concentrating for six years on motorway construction projects and a new wharf at Devonport naval base.
"I was lucky to be in the Ministry of Works at a stage when they made sure you had really good training and gave you the opportunity to gain experience."
He applied for resident engineer positions in both New Plymouth and Wanganui and was chosen for the latter. So he was back into state highways and a big workload at Waiouru camp.
In 1987 the Government changed the public service and the MoW became a state owned enterprise. Mr McGowan was seconded to MoW head office to help with the transition, particularly in Hamilton and Auckland.
He was then appointed regional manager for the precursor of Works Civil and realised another transfer was looming. This was 1989 about the time of massive local government reorganisation.
The Wanganui council took him on as director of works. In those days the council had a large workforce of its own. Big changes were looming and the council recognised he had relevant experience in this field.
Over his council career he has been involved in major commitments ? for instance, sewerage and water system improvements.
Mr McGowan agreed that working for local government made him "public property" to a greater degree than in private enterprise.
He took into account the arrival of a new council and the closure of chief executive Colin Whitlock's career. He made it clear about a year ago that he intended to finish.
"I'm leaving by choice."
Mr McGowan said he appreciated the variety of engineering roles available to him in local government.
"There wouldn't be many people who've had the opportunity of such a variety of work."
He took pride in having been associated with many engineers who went on to a high level in the profession. The Chronicle understands that this pride works in reverse, too.
Mr McGowan said he would take a break, continue his contribution to a number of community projects and carry on with, for instance, chairmanship of a New Zealand utilities advisory group. The group has representation from the Government and major utilities.