Dear Reader
BFD columnist Terry Dunleavy passed away this week. The article that he had planned to write for today was going to tell us “why Luxon’s speech was NOT ‘State of the Nation’ but was welcome as reaffirmation of the State of the National Party”.
In the years that I have communicated with Terry (I never met him in person), his correspondence with me painted the portrait of an energetic man, highly skilled, passionate and with the heart of an activist.
Terry at 93 was the oldest writer The BFD has ever had but he had the energy and drive of a man in his twenties. A friend of his told me that Terry’s life was rich in activity, varied and always interesting. He was passionate about what he believed and relentless in his quest for justice.
Terry’s first-ever email to me as The BFD editor was sent on Monday 23 Sept 2019. I didn’t open it until after his death, when doing a search for all his emails to me over the years. Typical of Terry it was brief and to the point.
Kia ora SB,
This European Climate Declaration (below), and covering letter sent to the Sec-General of U.N. is quote important in view of the current hysteria being created by Guterres and his “climate emergency” meeting in New York.
I’m sure you would like to run this as a guest post? Note that I am one of the signatories, as “ambassador” for NZ in my capacity as Hon Secretary of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition:
A year later in September 2020, Terry became The BFD’s Wednesday Columnist for our 9 am timeslot.
Terry never hesitated to tell me what I should publish on The BFD. He would send me emails with statements like “You must run this article by xxx on your blog.”
Terry was the kind of guy who took silence as a maybe. He was passionate about his beloved National Party and about getting the truth out about Climate Change. I would receive emails with the headlines in capitals saying “YOU MUST RUN THIS.”
Terry didn’t let my ignoring his instructions dampen his enthusiasm for emailing me regularly. When he suggested one day that he become a weekly columnist, I thought that it might lessen the number of emails he sent me each week. It didn’t.
I would describe Terry as a real ‘character’. He was never slow to tell me what I should be doing or publishing. Terry was a single-minded force of nature. He was a born salesman and wouldn’t let a “no” stop him. He was the kind of guy that you would want in your corner. I have heard that he was never backward in being forward with the members of the National Party in telling them what they needed to do to improve.
Terry had a mind as sharp as a tack. I can only hope that when I am in my nineties I am as sharp and intelligent as he undoubtedly was.
Terry was born in Te Awamutu in 1928. His father worked in hotels and ran the Dominion Breweries shop. Terry attended Sacred Heart College in Auckland. He had a welding apprenticeship at Ellis Hardy Symington and a cadetship at State Advances Corporation; he joined the Air Force before getting a job at the North Wairarapa Herald in Pahiatua. He covered local stories and eventually became the editor and manager of the paper.
He became interested in sports journalism and got a job with the New Zealand Sportsman. He was offered an opportunity to run a small newspaper and printing business in Apia, Samoa and left Auckland in 1951 to spend seven years there.
Terry even had a role in a Hollywood movie with Gary Cooper, Return to Paradise, while in Samoa. Eventually, Terry returned to New Zealand for his children’s education. He became involved in the National Party as chair of the Island Bay electorate.
He moved to Napier to work for the Martin Printing Company and stood unsuccessfully as a candidate in the Napier electorate in 1969. He printed labels for the wine industry and began to work for Montana. His career took him into the wine industry as inaugural CEO of the Wine Institute of New Zealand and his leading role in the development of wine as a new export industry: now our country’s sixth most valuable, selling and taking our name to over 100 countries.
He lobbied the government for the Wine Institute and also about taxes on the wine industry. He retired from the Institute in 1991 and was for 14 years editor of the industry’s quarterly magazine, New Zealand WineGrower. He was awarded an MBE in the 1990 New Year Honours for services to the wine industry and the community.
Terry even set up his own vineyard, Te Motu, on Waiheke Island, first vintage 1993. He was made a Justice of the Peace in 1996.
In 2006, he co-founded the NZ Climate Science Coalition after he was converted by the late Professor Augie Auer to become a sceptic about the claims that greenhouse gases could or do cause dangerous man-made global warming. Terry never lost his love of writing or his respect for what used to be the ethics of accurate presentation of news.
The BFD was very fortunate indeed to have someone of Terry’s calibre writing for us. I just know that right now in heaven Terry will be sharing a glass of wine with the big guy while enthusiastically telling him what he can do to improve the place.
