He walked with kings, bowled with mates
Wlawyer/judge b May 8, 1942 d January 31, 2020
hen Tony Ford was a young man working on the West Coast, he told his mates that one day he’d be a success and drive a red Merc.
He didn’t especially like red cars but, true to his word, his last car was a brand new red Mercedes, and he and wife Valda took a trip in it back to the West Coast.
It was a touchstone in life that he would stick to what he said, and he expected others to do the same. People not following through on commitments was one of the few things that wound him up.
Cars were not especially important to him but were a recurring theme in the Wellington lawyer and judge’s life.
In the early days before seat belts became compulsory, Ford would pack his seven children into a stationwagon, the littlest ones on mattresses in the back. As the law changed and the children grew, he rented vans for family trips.
On one of the many trips home to the West Coast, the van had a fault and the sliding side door kept opening. So he picked up a hitchhiker whose job it was to hold the door shut, in an arrangement that benefited everyone.
Since 1972 the family lived in Brooklyn, Wellington, in a house that originally had two bedrooms but grew to have six.
It also had a garage, the back wall punched through in 1995 by a brand new runaway V8 Ford, when Tony Ford had missed properly applying the handbrake, desperately jumped in but hit the accelerator instead of the brake.
Boxes of the children’s mementoes were scattered about the neighbourhood as the car crashed into the neighbour’s section below and rolled twice.
Ford broke three ribs and the car was a wreck, but he turned up at work as usual the next day, smiling through the jokes – including a spot in a lighthearted column on the back page of The Evening Post.
Better to appear on the back page of the paper than the second last page in the death notices, he said.
Colleagues at the firm of Bell Gully Buddle Weir made the most of it. ‘‘Have you flown a Ford lately?’’ they joked.
In 1993 he became part-owner of a pristine 1958 Studebaker Champion.
It had been an impulse investment when he and Valda went out to buy burgers for the family. While she was getting the food he met an acquaintance who had come up one member short for a seven-person group to buy the car.
Valda had the chequebook and handed it over when asked.
Burgers bought, she wanted to know why he needed the chequebook. ‘‘I almost
One of his daughters remembers bursting into his office, excited to tell him she’d got UE, only to pull up short when she realised Rob Muldoon was there.
got the burgers thrown at me,’’ he recalled in 2016 when the car was finally sold.
The years had added nothing to the 74 miles on the Studebaker’s clock. About once a year Ford and his wife would drive to see the car in storage in Wairarapa. The other owners fell away over the years until it was just Ford and one other family, and then the mechanic who was storing the car was selling his house, so the car was auctioned for $56,000.
Ford had worked for Bell Gully since 1970, specialising in employment law, working for both sides, and doing commercial law. He went on to become an Employment Court judge from 2010 until he retired in 2015.
He had appeared in several highprofile defamation cases, including acting for former prime ministers Jim Bolger and Rob Muldoon.
One of his daughters remembers bursting into his office, excited to tell him that she’d got University Entrance accredited, only to pull up short when she realised Muldoon was there.
But her father didn’t mind and was happy to see her. In the bottom drawer of his desk he kept pictures his children had drawn. His diaries had notes about work and other things, but many more about his family.
Acolleague from the Bell Gully days remembered him as a very practical lawyer and great with younger staff at a firm he regarded as family to be looked after. He was well loved, and left everyone with a story to tell about him.
Ford had keen interests outside of home and work. He was an enthusiastic lawn bowler, a keen promoter of the game and a talented fundraiser for the Vogelmorn Bowling Club, roping in the children to help at events with up to 30 teams, and a waiting list for places.
He was involved in other sports and community groups, but the bowling club and his friends there were special.
He also had a share in two racehorses, Idle Torque and Fayre Trial, but his betting was modest. If he went beyond a dollar each way it was only to splash $2 for a win and $3 for a place.
In 2000 he surprised his family by accepting appointment to the Supreme Court of Tonga, and was chief justice from 2006 to 2010. He helped reform the country’s justice system and travelled to New York to represent the Tongan judiciary to receive the World Bank’s Reformer of the Year award.
He also saw the justice system through the aftermath of the 2006 riots in Nuku’alofa.
Former attorney-general Chris Finlayson, QC, said Ford stood for maintenance of the rule of law when it wasn’t always an easy task, and when the separation of powers in government could have become blurred.
When he learned Ford was thinking of returning to New Zealand, Finlayson made him an Employment Court judge, a job Ford loved and where he was incredibly well liked, Finlayson said.
A former chief justice in Tonga attested to Ford having an effect that went far beyond his professional abilities. He united and motivated staff, and solved problems in and out of court in a gentle way.
He may have been in the ceremonial parades wearing a heavy white wig and red robes in the Tongan heat, but he got on with everyone, from the king down.
One of his daughters remembered he asked her as a teenager to commit to memory the aspirational Rudyard Kipling poem If, which includes the lines, ‘‘If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings –nor lose the common touch’’.
Sources: The Ford family, Chris Finlayson, Evening Post and Dominion Post libraries