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OBITUARY: Sir Barry Curtis, February 27, 1979, to March 30, 2007.
In the end, he didn’t want to go, but knew it was time, finishing 24 consecutive years as Mayor of Manukau City in 2007.
At the time, it was the record-holding run as New Zealand’s longest-serving local government mayor, only to eventually be overtaken by his old mate Sir Tim Shadbolt in Invercargill.
With the news just settling in of Sir Tim’s passing, word came last week that Sir Barry Curtis, who lived most of his life on the Bucklands Beach Peninsula, had died. He’d turned 87 in late February.
From 1983 to 2007, Sir Barry was Manukau in every way, its friendly face and charming character, leading the city through its greatest transformation period of growth and development.
“It’s very hard to let go,” Sir Barry, then 68, told this writer and the Times<ITALICS> when announcing his retirement as mayor in mid-August 2007.
“It’s something I’ve been committed to since the last election [2004].”
Sir Barry finished in local government with an impressive record having been successful in all 13 elections he stood in from 1968. Five terms as a councillor, eight as mayor, and there were terms on the old Auckland Regional Authority (the ARA) representing Manukau in the 1970s.
When he won the mayoral chains in 1983, the highly qualified town planner was ready after serving a lengthy apprenticeship as a councillor under one his east Auckland mentors, former Manukau Mayor the late Sir Lloyd Elsmore.
“At that time [1983], people were disrespectful,” Sir Barry said in 2007. “They wanted to heap their noxious industries on Manukau.
“They wanted to dump their waste in the Manukau Harbour. They referred to us as those people out there in south Auckland.
“All it did was harden my attitude, making me determined to change the image that was attached to us.”
By the time he left office, Sir Barry said: “I see Manukau today as New Zealand’s most progressive unit of local government. It’s a title it can wear proudly.
“When you look at the socioeconomic, environmental and cultural outcomes we have achieved, and that embraces the whole spectrum, I think we can be very proud.”
Sir Barry is remembered as a formidable public speaker and descriptive storyteller, often painting a picture in the mind of the setting and time he was talking of, and his speeches always contained greetings in all the languages of the Pacific representing the people of Manukau.
There was an air of regalia about Sir Barry, and he enjoyed being addressed as that, and he was a proud, dignified and knowledgeable leader, but there was the down-to-earth man who could mix with anyone and knew the history and connections of countless Manukau people and their families, making people feel at ease and of interest in his company.
