Remember Tauranga's first city mayor

Keith ‘Nobby’ Clarke and his wife Jo Clarke. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

The first mayor of the modern Tauranga City Nobby Clarke has died at the age of 87.

Keith ‘Nobby' Clarke was the first mayor of an expanded Tauranga City that included Mount Maunganui and former Western Bay of Plenty County Council territory in Papamoa and Bethlehem, following the 1989 local body restructuring.

Current Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless remembers Nobby as a gentleman.

'He was before my time, but I did meet him on a couple of occasions. He was a gentlemen. He had that sort of air, smoked a pipe…” says Greg.

'I didn't work with him in any way, but I knew of his reputation as an excellent principal of Arataki Primary School, I think he was much loved there.

'Probably his teaching skills might have held him in good stead at council too in some ways, in trying to control councillors.”

Former Mount Maunganui Mayor Wayne Moultrie says Nobby Clarke was a ‘good bugger'.

'He had a presence about him. I suppose it was the head master in him, he just had an ability to make things go his way in a sort of quiet but firm fashion,” says Wayne.

'One was always reluctant to challenge him because of his size, his age, and his experience. One of the lasting memories I have is in my second term as mayor two of my councillors put their names forward for deputy mayor.”

Wayne sent them off to sort it out between them and Nobby returned a few minutes later announcing he was the deputy.

The other guy was Norm McMaster, also a former Tauranga city Councillor under the Clarke mayoralty.

'They were both a couple of very competent guys,” says Wayne. 'Mount Borough Council on most occasion was reasonably coherent.”

Nobby's winning the Tauranga mayoralty in 1989 was a massive achievement, says Wayne.

'When you look at the respective voting powers of the two areas, because Tauranga would have outvoted us three or four to one at least, but the headmaster came through - with that bloody pipe stuck in his face.”

Nobby successfully campaigned for the new mayoralty in 1989 on ‘Bridging the Gap'. He served two terms.

The forced amalgamation came a year after the opening of the first Tauranga Harbour Bridge in March 1988.

Nobby was the chairman of the Tauranga Harbour Bridge Committee, the vehicle comprising the borough and city councils and the Bay of Plenty Harbour Board, that finally succeeded in seeing through the planning and construction of the first Stella Passage bridge after years of political see-sawing from both sides of the harbour.

It was Nobby who decided the name of the committee and who named the bridge the Tauranga Harbour Bridge.

Nobby and his late wife of 52 years, Jo, had four children.

A memorial service will be held for Nobby at the Omanu golf Club on May 4 at 3pm.

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3 comments

Quality

Posted on 28-04-2017 11:12 | By penguin

Nobby had those qualities that many of us would like to aspire to but don't always achieve.


people and kids

Posted on 28-04-2017 17:38 | By Capt_Kaveman

where scared of him but on one hand he was ok while at The Mount ten once had power of the whole city he jinxed it from the day on and so all that followed continue the demise of what Tauranga citys is of today


what

Posted on 28-04-2017 22:21 | By usandthem

the hell are you talking about capt Kaveman?Nothing what you say makes sense.


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