On the double
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A NAME YOU CAN TRUST! Thursday, November 5, 2015
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Vol 44, No 53
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All Blacks on a high
Bye bye Bill
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By MARIANNE KELLY
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arewell Bill Mudgway. So said a host of community figures who gathered at Howick’s All Saints Anglican Church on Monday. They were there to celebrate the life of the man behind the microphone, finally silenced with his death at the age of 93. The funeral was attended by local body politicians, representatives of Howick RSA and Howick Pakuranga Grey Power, and many more whose lives had been touched by this gregarious man. His brother, Tony Mudgway, said he was a genuine people person. “His enthusiasm rubbed off on you. You never saw him down in the mouth.” Former Howick Borough Council Mayor, Morrin Cooper described Bill as a “man of the utmost integrity, loyalty and diligence”. In more recent times he
turned his interest to participation in the local community, serving on the Pakuranga Community Board, volunteer broadcasting on Howick Village Radio, compering the annual Howick village Santa Parade, the Howick Lions in the Park and Military Tattoo and the Stockade Hill Christmas lights switch-on. And, while he was not a Rotarian, he was honoured with Rotary International’s Paul Harris Fellowship Award. “I used to frequently say how healthy his silver hair was looking,” Mr Cooper said. “He replied saying ‘snow only falls on the highest peaks’.” Former motorcycle Speedway rider, Bob Andrews met Bill when he arrived in New Zealand from Britain in 1962. One year, Mr Andrews said, when Bill was opening the envelope to introduce the person about to be inducted into the Speedway
Hall of Fame, Bill discovered it was himself. “You should have seen the surprise on his face He was a pleasure to know and my life is richer from knowing him.” The tales of earlier days were told in an email from a former Radio I Eye in the Sky pilot, Captain David Morgan, now chief flight operations and safety officer for Air New Zealand. “Bill was always courteous, never had a bad word and was never riled if there were operational problems,” he said. After sleeping in one morning, a pilot arrived at Ardmore Airport to find the aircraft ready for takeoff with engines revved up while Bill, the former World War II pilot, sat calmly waiting in the passenger seat. When the weather was too foggy to get into the air, Bill’s answer was to park the aircraft
GO WELL: Bill Mudgway’s wife Catherine says her final goodbye.
outside the terminal, open the terminal windows wide and start the aircraft. “Bill said it would make the broadcast sound authentic and the public didn’t know,” Mr Morgan said. Bill’s funeral service came to an appropriate conclusion as the sounds of the Last Post rang out through the church and Howick RSA past president, Pat McClenaghan recited The Ode honouring the World War II veteran. In April last year The Times asked Bill the question, what did the war teach him? “That’s a lovely question and a hard one to answer,” he said. “To be grateful for every minute and hour.” Mr Morgan said: “All pilots [who flew with him] will look back on their early aviation careers and be grateful to Bill. “We can all agree, he is now truly the Eye in the Sky.”
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