Honoured O’Connor ‘feels like a bit of an imposter’

A seasoned journalist, author and political commentator, Tom O’Connor is adept at staying ahead of the game, analysing scenarios, plotting outcomes and predicting the state of play.

But not everything can be foreseen and the news he was a recipient of a New Year’s honour took the 74-year-old South Cantabrian by surprise.

‘‘It absolutely came out of the blue,’’ the St Andrews resident and Waimate District Councillor says of the news he was being made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

‘‘I have to say I feel like a bit of an imposter. Nothing I have done, I have done on my own. I have always been part of a team.’’

Those teams include various councils and other local bodies; the newsrooms of a variety of publications; and the senior citizens advocacy organisation Grey Power – ‘‘who have a pretty switched-on team these days’’.

It wasn’t always that way. O’Connor joined Grey Power at a time when the organisation was gripped by internal strife and members ‘‘with strongly held views that were negative views rather than positive ones’’.

He was elected vice president in 2015 and was president from 2016 to 2018, during which time the organisation refocused and repositioned itself.

‘‘Together we repositioned Grey Power, turning it from an activist group to a negotiating group. These days we are part of the formulating of policies, rather than waiting for the policies to come out and then attacking them.

‘‘The Labour-led Government’s new housing policy is one of those and it reflects the involvement that Grey Power had in that process.’’

Leading Grey Power was the most recent chapter of a life that has encompassed numerous eras and careers. One of these, newspaper reporter, has armed O’Connor with skills including writing media releases and papers for Grey Power.

The first paper he worked for, in 1963, was the Pukekohe-based Franklin Times. The paper may have long since disappeared, but O’Connor has vivid and fond memories of his time there.

‘‘It was a good training ground with some very clever people. I have been very lucky to have had the benefit of some very good mentors and tutors all the way through. Newsrooms are another kind of team and they have to be, with the older journalists looking after the younger ones.

‘‘It’s an honourable institution, a very important one . . . Good journalism is an essential element of a free society.’’

‘‘Of course the most important team I have is the one that has looked after the home front. My wife Joy who worked as a teacher and looked after our little farm while I was off attending some conference somewhere. She never complained about it and she is probably just as deserving of this honour as I am.’’

Other teams O’Connor has been involved with are the Department of Conservation, where he worked as a communications officer, and several acclimatisation societies and fish and game councils .

He is now a long-time resident of St Andrews. A former chairman of the St Andrews Residents’ Association, he has represented the St Andrew/Southburn/ Otaio ward on the Waimate District Council since 2013.

He has published seven books including an English/Ma¯ ori biography of Alfred (Bunty) Preece and a biography of Eric Batchelor, both highly decorated soldiers, and three historic novels on the life of the Ngati Toarangatira leader Te Rauparaha.

His present project is writing the 100-year history of the Waimate RSA.