ANZAC DAY SERVICES SEE PAGE 22
Te Kai Whakarongo 22 April 2025 | Proudly locally owned and operated Issue 1154 Circulation 9000
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CONNECTING COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE COROMANDEL PENINSULA
BASKER ROAST NIGHT Every Wednesday night from 5pm Pork, lamb, chicken or beef Buffet salad and sauce bar Bookings recommended
3A Reweti Drive (opposite Mobil) www.basker.co.nz info@basker.co.nz Phone: 07 866 0645 Hours 8.00am to late
STANLEY JAMES STEWART – NO MORE OF HIS ‘STUFF’
T
he plan was for the front page to be Cyclone Tam. But that storm has faded, and the Peninsula has stood up well. I am aware that regularly, great lives end, and they are not honoured with an obituary on any paper’s front page. However, I have decided to give this page to Stan. He was owner and editor with me of the Coromandel Informer, a position we have held since 5 May, 2022. This wasn’t in our long-term plan but, considering the years prior to our coming were also not in our plans, we took up a good friend’s urging to start something new and challenging in the twilight years of our life. I was 69 and Stan 85. They have not felt like twilight years, as we have worked very hard to get to know Whitianga and the whole peninsula. We are not strangers to publishing or public life, but we were complete novices to publishing weekly, and we were strangers to most of you. We had not lived sheltered lives, having worked in television, the music industry and organising large community events nationally and internationally. Unashamedly however, we were
both Ministers and followed the Christian faith. Stan had worked in Whitianga as part time Minister at St Andrews Community Church from 1998 to 2000. At the time, he was also Minister of Paeroa Co-operating Parish and the producer and Director of the Waikato millennium celebration which was to take two years to put together. Stan made an impact in Mercury Bay. The beautiful church of St Andrews was turned into a larger more accommodating community-oriented building. This was through Stan’s ideas, leadership, and his work to find the funds. We started a Music and Movement Program and produced the Movie called “Twelve Days” on Captain Cook and the transit of Mercury. This screened at The Whitianga Museum for 20 years. Fittingly, he is being buried from that church. He loved that project and St Andrews and became good friends with many. Only Dorothy Preece is still there and remains a friend and organ-
iser at St Andrews. In addition, we were invited by the local people to start the annual Day Camp. We had established successful Day Camps in other parts of New Zealand and Australia. This com-
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munity, with Richard Vetter’s leadership, grabbed hold of the concept, recruited a team and the Coromandel Peninsula has a highly successful Day Camp to this day organised by the Mercury Bay Community. Having a history going back 25 years did not make us locals but Stan still had a long history, spanning Australia, Canada, USA, as well as many parts of New Zealand. He was essentially a teacher, and a project leader; but above all he inspired people and listened to them. He brought a sense of humour and helped weld communities into more forgiving and connected entities. He was not interested in touchy feely thinking; he worked for change, long believing it started with people’s own hopes and dreams. Whitianga and the Peninsula gave him time to write. Stan’s Stuff started during covid but here he had the weekly discipline of the newspaper. His resources were people, their stories, their struggles, and his prolific reading of world events and history.
Stan and I heard on 21 January 2025, that his fibrosis of the lungs and lung cancer were terminal stage Four and nothing could be done. He fought it and kept challenging the medical community for solutions. They did their best and we did ours. The news had been a shock to us. Stan was served very well by medical science and by the people who bring the science through their personal care and dedication. We could not have asked for more help and expertise. I will be continuing the paper because I want to, and because Stan wanted that. We believed in it together and separately. We worked together for 50 years and were married for 43. We loved it all. I am one extremely fortunate person. Stan’s funeral is 2.00pm, Wednesday, 23 April at St Andrews Community Church, Whitianga. Afters are at Mercury Bay Club. There will be a memorial service in Australia in the month following for Stan’s and Pauline’s families. Stan’s funeral will be live streamed on this link: https:// www.youtube.com/live/eKLaMDxnENI?si=fvgnsbaZENHpfnTL
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