Pete Seegar, born 1919, was one of the movers and shakers of the Twentieth Century.
I met him once. In May 1968 I was acting as Chair of the Auckland Council on Vietnam, while the regular chair, Len Reid of the ASRS, the railwaymen's union, was on holiday.
There was a rally planned at St Matthew's Church in the city, and the key appearances were to be Pete Seegar and Hone Tuwhare. I met Pete a day or two deforhand and discussed the rally, and then on the night I drove Hone to the church.
At the rally, I introduced Pete and Hone in turn. Pete led singing, and Hone read his poems.
Pete was one of the mildest men I ever met, but when he got an instrument in his hands, his fingers played a few chords, and his reedy voice started up, he could shift crowds and influence powerful politicians. "We shall not be moved" and "Big Muddy" among others, became classics of the protest movements.
It is one of the enduring memories my life.
YESTERDAY, I joined my brother, Stuart, three of his sons, Andrew, Philip and Jonny, and Phillip's son Ben, at Auckland Grammar School, to celebrate the first time five members of one family from five successive generations had attended the school.
Great-great-grandfather Fred (1882), Great-grandfather Noel (1916), Grandfather Stuart (1953), Father Phillip (?) and now Ben. As well as Jonny, Andrew and myself, my grandson Rowan was also a student there recently, and in the early twentieth century (say around 1910), my aunt, Doris Kathleen Gaze, also attended AGS, when it was providing education for girls as well as boys. Prizes she won have the AGS logo and badge on them.
You will see the photo and article in the Herald.
TODAY, Julia, Andrew, and baby Sophie arrive in Auckland from London.
What a great day!
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