Goto registrar loved and respected in every sphere
ALAN Herring is remembered as an ‘‘amazing’’ registrar, an inspirational leader and a devoted family man.
Kind, caring and supportive of all his staff, ‘‘he was a great boss as well as a very dear friend to many of us’’, Dunedin Court manager Debbie Kareroa said at Mr Herring’s funeral in July.
In his role as head of the court ‘‘family’’, Alan Herring had a huge impact on the lives of many staff. He taught them a good work ethic, accountability and, most of all, ‘‘own and learn from your mistakes’’.
Although of slight physical build, Mr Herring was ‘‘a massive man, with a huge heart, very generous, caring and inspirational’’. He would answer the phone in a deep voice with the greeting, ‘‘Herring speaking’’.
‘‘He didn’t mix words — he told you how it was,’’ Ms Kareroa said.
Mr Herring’s long and successful career with the Justice Department began on December 10, 1956, when he started work as a 16yearold clerical cadet in the Greymouth Supreme/Magistrates Court.
One of his tasks was to fill the coal bucket and light the fire.
From Greymouth, Mr Herring went to Hokitika as sole charge registrar at the Magistrates Court before transferring to Central Otago in 1968, as registrar of the Magistrates Court in Cromwell. That involved not only the usual court work but also responsibilities as registrar of electors (compiling the rolls), returning officer for the Otago Electorate (running general elections and referendums), clerk of the Central Otago Licensing Committee, registrar of the Wardens Court (issuing of prospectors’ rights, miners’ licences and water rights) and as receiver of gold revenue.
He was also returning officer for Dunedin South during several elections.
Cromwell was followed by a move to Upper Hutt in 1969. A year later, the family — Alan, wife Margaret and children Tracey and Lance — headed to Christchurch, where Mr Herring was deputy Supreme Court registrar. Son Clinton was born in Christchurch before the family moved to Dunedin in 1975, when Mr Herring became senior deputy registrar of the High and District Courts.
The high point of his career was his appointment in 1983 as Dunedin high and district court registrar, a position he held for 13 years. But 1998 was a low point, when restructuring of the court system meant he was replaced as registrar and appointed to the department’s newly formed Collections Business Unit.
As registrar, Mr Herring was also sheriff of the High Court, a role that could involve him in having to sell defendants’ property to recover outstanding debts. In his ‘‘sheriff’’ role he sold ‘‘an entire dairy herd, a helicopter and several farms’’.
Although having to organise such sales was tough, Mr Herring said in an interview in 2001. The people whose property was being dealt with seemed to accept he had a job to do and let him get on with it.
At the time of the interview, he was New Zealand’s longestserving courts employee and had just been presented with an award in recognition of his 45 years with the department.
He drily suggested he must have been ‘‘remarkably stupid’’ to have stayed in the same job for 45 years but said it had been a rewarding career.
In 2005, the department had a special ceremony to mark his 50 years of service.
Mr Herring saw many changes to the court system and acquired expertise in all areas of the justice department, from the more unusual fields of mining affairs and mining rights to basic court systems. His extensive knowledge meant he was often called on to give lectures on general court procedure to University of Otago law students.
He was gifted with a retentive memory — his wife called it a photographic memory — a wonderful asset in his career with the Justice Department.
Dunedin Crown solicitor Robin Bates recalls Mr Herring as ‘‘very knowledgeable about the law and procedure — so he ended up training the new lawyers’’.
The Crown lawyers often rang him ‘‘to confirm what to do, especially regarding documents to be filed’’.
Defence lawyers, too, found his advice invaluable.
Over the years, Mr Herring’s work brought him into contact with a wide range of people from all levels of society. He had not been to university and did not have a law degree, but learned a lot of law ‘‘through practical application’’.
A multitalented man, reliable, brilliant, versatile and enterprising, Mr Herring made his mark on the lives of many people, not the least being those serving sentences of community work, previously known as periodic detention.
He had the ability to relate to people of all backgrounds and always had a sense of fair play and justice.
In the mid1970s, he had become a parttime deputy warden at the Periodic Detention Centre, which meant acting as a Saturday supervisor of local periodic detention boys.
It was a job he thoroughly enjoyed and continued after retiring from the court. He worked three to four days a week with PD and had been working on the three days before his sudden death.
Colleague and fellow supervisor Peter Seque described Mr Herring as an ideal person to supervise the work teams.
He was straightforward but respectful of the various individuals, making it clear what was expected of them while always treating them as people rather than offenders.
They appreciated his straightforward way of communicating, always looking directly at them when talking to them, Mr Seque said.
Mr Herring’s son Lance, a Porirua police officer, said his father always spoke highly about the walkways and tracks he and the ‘‘PD lads’’ were responsible for making.
‘‘He talked with pride about most of the community work the lads did. He told an old story about the weather being so bad one Saturday that he and the lads working PD that day ended up going to the movies. He was quite chuffed how he had wrangled free entry for them all.’’
Even if it did not happen quite as described by his father, it was still ‘‘a bloody good yarn’’, Lance said.
A small memorial sign painted at the work centre after his death showed how highly Mr Herring was regarded by staff and work teams, he said.
Alan James Herring was born in Greymouth on April 10, 1940, the elder of two sons of James Henry Herring, a Post and Telegraph Department worker and Alma Esther Herring (nee Wilson). His brother, Barry, was three years younger.
Growing up in Greymouth,
Alan went to the local primary school before going to Greymouth Technical College for his secondary education.
He was a good allround sportsman, enjoying the usual school sports, particularly rugby. He played on the wing for Star and was a junior representative rugby player. He also played indoor basketball, badminton, and softball at representative level and he enjoyed golf as a social sport.
Mr Herring also enjoyed taking part in local musical productions and, during his Greymouth days, was a member of the Operatic Society, in the stage crew and also as a cast member.
But it was through their mutual love of sport he met his wife, Margaret Proffit, then a doctor’s receptionist. The couple were married in the Presbyterian Church in Greymouth in October 1966 and set up their first home in the town.
They had three children, daughter Tracey, and two sons, Lance and Clinton.
Tragically for the family, Clinton was killed in an accident in Dunedin in October 2001. He was 30.
A devoted husband and father, Mr Herring was fully committed to his family and their community. He supported and encouraged his children, was remembered as a very good cook and apparently made ‘‘the best’’ school lunches, apple crumble and whitebait patties.
Tracey recalled getting a ride home on the carrier of her father’s bike when she was young and Lance remembered the way his father involved himself in the Waverley Scouts Group and
Otago Boys’ High School Parents and Teachers Association. He was also part of the team that built the adventure playground in Waverley. He always tried to be on the sidelines when his children and grandchildren were playing sport.
His best ways of relaxing were going whitebaiting or panning for gold, and he was a great reader. Both Lance and Tracey recalled their father reading to them and later, to their children. It was something all his grandchildren remarked on when talking about their ‘‘Pop’’.
Mr Herring never ventured far out of the South Island and only twice outside New Zealand. In 1992 he went to Australia for Clinton’s 21st and in 2006 to his nephew Paul’s wedding.
His idea of a holiday was jumping in his ute and heading over to Greymouth for whitebait season. And it was not unheard of for him to turn up in Punakaiki on New Year’s Eve.
One memorable trip to the Coast involved carrying a large stainless steel sink tied to the roof rack of the family Cortina. The sink had been removed during alterations to their Dunedin home and was to be installed in Margaret’s mother’s home in Greymouth.
‘‘We took off from Dunedin really early, so people wouldn’t see us,’’ Margaret recalled. She vividly remembered going through Timaru and seeing the reflection of their wellladen car with its stainless steel cargo reflected in shop windows.
The Cortina’s front windscreen was broken on the same journey, on a gravel road around the back of Lake Coleridge. Then they hit heavy rain going through Arthurs Pass and Mr Herring wore an old oilskin as he struggled to see the road and the rest of the family dodged the rain as best they could.
Although he was a dedicated Otago and Highlanders supporter through his years in Dunedin, he remained at heart a West Coast man. Greymouth and the time he spent on the Coast with family and friends were always an important part of his life.
Margaret and Alan celebrated their 70th and 75th birthdays at Easter 2015. His father was ‘‘genuinely surprised’’ he had lasted that long, Lance recalled.
Mr Herring died unexpectedly at his Dunedin home on July 22.
A greatly loved husband, father, grandpop and greatgrandpop, he is survived by wife Margaret, brother Barry, daughter Tracey and son Lance and their families, comprising five grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren. — Kay Sinclair
❛ He was a great boss as well as a very dear friend