Creative, energetic worker for community
DUNEDIN woman Barbara Phillipps will be remembered for her creative flair and her tireless voluntary work.
She died in Dunedin on July 2, aged 84.
Mrs Phillipps was a communityminded woman who carried out work behind the scenes for a wide range of organisations throughout her life — from the Otago Farmers Market, Unicef and Trade Aid to the New Zealand Labour Party.
Her dedication to her community led to her being awarded the Queen’s Service Medal in 2001.
Mother of The Chills frontman Martin Phillipps, she was a cellist and singer, and passed her love of music on to her three children, Sara, Martin and Rachel.
Barbara Elizabeth Laurenson was born in Lower Hutt in 1934 and grew up in Karori, Wellington. In 1943, her family moved to Nelson, where she attended Appleby School and Nelson College for Girls.
She moved to Wellington at the age of 18 to work, where she met her future husband, Dunedin Methodist minister the Rev Donald Phillipps, at the Hataitai Methodist Church.
The couple were married in 1958 and lived in both Wellington and Auckland, where their children were born. The family moved to the South Island in 1968, first to Milton, then Dunedin two years later.
Mrs Phillipps had a wide range of jobs, including in a hospital chaplain’s office, the radiography department at Dunedin Hospital, Knox Pharmacy and McLeod Brothers soap manufacturers.
She was selfemployed for a time, typing up theses for university students and doing clerical typing for small businesses. She ran a shop, Fragrance, in George St, Dunedin for five years, and was secretary of the Edinburgh Way retailers group.
Her husband said she had exceptional skills as a manager and organiser, and made a significant contribution to all the organisations she was involved with. For many years, she carried out voluntary work for Dunedin North MP Pete Hodgson, particularly during election time.
Her creative flair came to the fore in many ways. While in Auckland, she trained as a tutor with the Marriage Guidance organisation, and she was the first tutor in the South Island, leading classes in family life education in Balclutha and Milton.
In Milton, she had a major hand in establishing the Senior Citizens’ Club, and in Module, a volunteer craft shop.
In Dunedin, she played a leading role in the establishment of the Fernhill Community Group. This led directly to her involvement in setting up the Otago Farmers Market. She was chairwoman of the market trust for a time, and of her many achievements, the success of the market gave her the greatest satisfaction, her husband said.
In later years, she was devoted to her closeknit family, which he described as her chief joy.
She did not stint in her volunteering, and was deputy chairwoman of the Dunedin Horticultural Society, as well as an active member of Unicef and the Trade Aid Charitable Trust.
Unicef and Trade Aid really caught her imagination, her husband said. She liked their philosophy, and she was on the Unicef national executive, travelling to Wellington frequently.
He said Barbara preferred to work behind the scenes and was more interested in ensuring that those community groups she belonged to functioned well and achieved what they set out to do.
She is survived by her husband, children Sara
Barham, Martin Phillipps and Rachel Devereux, grandchildren Gabrielle, Oliver and Timothy, stepgrandchildren Kate, Rachel and Nicholas, and stepgreatgranddaughter Zia.
— Elena McPhee