Northlanders on New Year honours list
Four Northlanders made this year’s New Year Honours list for their talents ranging from education to sailing, community services and firefighting.
Mangawhai resident Jillian Corkin was made a Member of the said Order (MNZM) for services to education. Her career in education spans more than 30 years.
Corkin says it was fabulous to be acknowledged for her passion.
‘‘I didn’t expect it in a million years,’’ she says.
‘‘It was a lovely surprise, I’m really honoured and really humbled by it.’’
Corkin was the founding principal of Snells Beach School, retiring in 2015. She has also been principal at two Auckland schools in Remuera and Pakuranga.
She helped establish principal training courses at Massey University and has been elected vice president and president of the Auckland Primary Principals’ Association.
After her retirement Corkin was convenor of the 2016 TransTasman conference and organised Jillian Corkin more than 900 delegates from the education sectors of New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific in Auckland.
Kerikeri’s Blair Tuke was also made a MNZM for services to sailing after winning gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in the 49er class. He and teammate Peter Burling were the first sailors to win four consecutive 49er class World Championships, from 2013 to 2016.
Mangawhai firefighter Mau- Blair Tuke rice Doughty received a Queens Service Medal (QSM) for services to the NZ Fire Service. Doughty has been a firefighter for 55 years, having first joined the Auckland Metropolitan Fire Brigade at Point Chevalier in 1960.
He was a senior station officer at Pitt St station until 1983 and from 1980 helped establish the volunteer fire force at Mangawhai, helping obtain uniforms, appliances and equipment and train local firefighters. He moved Maurice Doughty to Mangawhai Heads in 1996 and joined the volunteers of the rural fire force.
Doughty retired in 2014 and has continued his involvement with the fire service and has been the volunteer Civil Defence coordinator for the Mangawhai area.
Whangarei businessman Walter Yovich also received a QSM for services to the community. Yovich contributed to the Whangarei and Northland communities as a director of national Walter Yovich and locally established companies. He was elected to the Whangarei District Council in 1989 and served two terms. During this time he instigated the recycling levy and the setup of recycling facilities in Whangarei, one of the first in New Zealand.
He is patron for the Whangarei Quarry Gardens Trust and the Jim Carney Cancer Centre. He has been on the Northland Bowls Centre executive and other bowling committees.