RSA Review Spring 2020

11 RSA REVIEW • SPRING 2020 Fifty years of effort and service to the RSAwere recognised with the Papatoetoe & District RSA awarded a Gold Star to Murray Smith. Murray’s contact with the military began in 1955-57 periodwhenhe did compulsorymilitary training (CMT) in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and then in the Reserves. He joined the New Zealand Police in 1961, and was stationed at Papatoetoe from 1962- 68. He was promoted to sergeant in 1968 and remained with the police or another 10 years. In 1970 he joined the Otahuhu RSA as an associatemember as at that time ex-servicemen and police were not recognised as service persons. During 1980 and 1981, hewas on theOtahuhu RSA sub-committee, then in 1982, he was appointed club manager, and in 1987 secre- tary/manager, continuing in that role until August 1994. In January 1996, he transferred his member- ship to the Papatoetoe & District RSA. The following year, 1997, he became convener of the Papatoetoe RSA 8-ball Section. He continued in the 8-ball role until 2010, but by then has added several other roles to his repertoire: • 1999-2001 – Papatoetoe RSA executive committee; • 2001-2009 – Papatoetoe RSA president; • 2006-2012– Papatoetoe RSA welfare & pensions officer; • Periodically from 2002-2006 – Papatoetoe RSA delegate to the Auckland District RSA Youth Counci; • Regularly from 2006-2012 – Papatoetoe RSA delegate to the Auckland District RSA Youth Council; • 2005-2010 – Papatoetoe RSA delegate to Southern Cross Cadet Unit; • 2001-2009 Byvirtueof his officeof president, a trustee of the club; • Since 2009 – chairman of the Trust During eight one-year terms as president, he attended eight RNZRSA national conferences and eight Clubs NewZealand annual meetings, plus the many other RSA-related meetings a working president needed to involved in. These included welfare, gaming-machine training, South Auckland presidents, the district RSA, District Clubs NZ, the Auckland City Council re poppy appeals and Anzac Day organisation, and so forth. As RSA president, he and senior staff inves- tigated stock discrepancies and document falsification. This led to the resignation of the secretarymanager in April 2002. A not replace- mentwasnotfound untilSeptember,andMurray made himself available to voluntarily assist with number of the managerial duties while continuing to carry out his role as president. In 2004 he negotiated with the Southern Cross Cadet Unit and was responsible for the unit coming to Papatoetoe RSA in 2005. He remained the RSA delegate to the unit until 2010, attending as manymeetings and parades as he could. As president he became part of the South Auckland RSA Cemetery Trust, which was responsible for the fund raising and subsequent installation of the war memorial that now stands immediately adjacent to the Services Cemetery at the Manukau Memorial Gardens. He felt the memorial was not properly main- tained by the cemetery contractors, so he carried out regular inspections and eventually undertook to voluntarily attend to the memo- rial lawns. From October 18, 2012 to August 28, 2015, he used his own transport, mower, petrol and fertiliser (not forgetting his time) in the weekly mowing and attending to the general tidiness of the area As president, he re-vamped the Papatoetoe RSA welfare system, ensuring the welfare office was kept open at certain times on certain days. And as far he was concerned. his door was always open. He endeavoured to attendasmany funerals of PapatoetoeRSAmembersaspossible, presenting his version of the RSA tributewhere applicable. He would travel anywhere in Auckland to carry out this function. His involvement inRSAactivitieswas reduced in 2015 because of the prolonged illness and subsequent death in 2017 of his wife, Beverley. However, he is still presents the RSA tribute at the funerals of veterans and, as a funeral celebrant, still performs the occasional full service for RSA members. He also makes himself readily available for adviceonRSA-relatedmatters, visitsmembers in MiddlemoreHospital andmakes the occasional home visit, regularly collects for the Poppy Appeal, and normally attends the four Anzac Day services PapatoetoeRSA is involved in– the Dawn Parade at the Manukau War Memorial; the East Tamaki service; the Papatoetoe Central School service; thePapatoetoeRSACivil Service. While he remains very active (he looks on a 10 kilometre walk a just a stroll in the park), he has been heard to say that at 84 years age, he is slowing down. At the presentation of Murray Smith’s ‘M’ Badge and Certificate of Merit, Laurie Everitt, the Papatoetoe RSApresident of the day, referring to Murray Smith as “Mr Fix-it”, and described him as a person who strongly advocated the RSAmotto of People helping People. PHOTOS: Left: Murray Smith his Gold Star award. Below: Murray Smith shares his award with (from left): Graham Gibson (Auckland RSA president); his daughters Pamela Ireland, Diane Rawiri and Sharon Smith, and Auckland mayor Phil Goff. ‘Mr fix-it’ earns top RSA award for massive efforts Around The Traps Left: Murray Smith and Auckland RSA president Graham Gibson share a moment.