Respects paid to aviator
ON a perfect day for flying, mourners packed St Margaret’s Presbyterian Church in Frankton to hear stories about the life of Queenstown aviation veteran Robert Rutherford.
Mr Rutherford (71), who founded and ran flightseeing company Glenorchy Air with wife Janet for more than 25 years, died at his Frankton home last Monday after falling from a ladder.
Mrs Rutherford said her husband was the ‘‘love of my life’’.
‘‘He was my wild colonial boy, I was his bonnie Geordie lass.’’
He was a kind and loving man who ‘‘always bent over backwards to think the best of everyone’’.
‘‘I can’t understand why such a lovely man as yourself would be taken so early. What am I going to do without you?’’
Daughter Amy said Glenorchy Air’s 25th anniversary celebration in November last year was one of her father’s proudest moments.
He loved flying, and to the end of his life was as excited to get into a plane as he was when he first flew 50 years ago.
Interesting, funny and smart, he had a ‘‘constant, perpetual curiosity’’.
‘‘He was filled with a constant wonder at the world.’’
Her father did not hold a grudge against anyone, even when others in the family thought it was warranted.
Son Andrew said the manner of his father’s death was difficult to reconcile with the risks inherent in his aviation career — one he had got through without injuring himself or his passengers.
It was a small consolation his death ‘‘did not involve a deficit of aviation skill’’.
Daughter Zoe said her father had taught her the most important things in life were ‘‘kindness, love, and to have fun’’.
Youngest daughter Emily said his enthusiasm for every day, and appreciation for ‘‘the little things’’ in life, had showed her how to live her own.
Minister Ian Guy, officiating at the funeral, told the family he had been struck by the inscription on a picture hanging in their home that read ‘‘if I fall, you will fly’’.
After everything he had learned about Mr Rutherford during the service, those words seemed prophetic.
‘‘I think that Robert has given you everything you need to fly.’’
After the service, three Glenorchy Air planes approached in formation from over Lake Wakatipu, flying low overhead before turning and flying past again onebyone, waggling their wings.