Quake victim’s legacy aids organ-building apprentice
A Timaru man has become only the second person to receive the Neil Stocker Memorial Scholarship – a fund named in honour of a Cantabrian who spent more than 40 years of his life in the organ-building industry.
Last week, Julian Shaw, 29, was awarded the scholarship at a presentation at the South Island Organ Company where he had worked for the past 11 years and Stocker worked for 42 years.
He will use the sholarship to cover study costs related to his organ-building apprenticeship.
The first scholarship was awarded to Josh Anderson in 2014.
Stocker, the organ company’s first apprentice, was one of three men killed in the Christchurch earthquake on February 22, 2011, while dismantling a pipe organ at Durham St Methodist Church. His colleagues Paul Dunlop and Scott Lucy also died.
The company, with the aid of volunteers from Christchurch, had planned to store the instrument for safekeeping after the church building had been badly damaged in the September 4 earthquake the previous year.
Following his death, Stocker’s wife, Margaret, instigated a fund in her late husband’s name “to provide support for organ builders who are furthering their skills, encourage those who might become organ builders and support visitors who have the skills to enhance organ building in New Zealand’’.
Shaw said after 11 years working for the company he wanted to further his skills, and began his apprenticeship at the end of last year. He considered himself lucky to be surrounded by skilled people willing to pass on their knowledge. “I’d like to increase my skills and give back to the company,’’ he said.
South Island Organ Company director Val Hargraves described Shaw as a “very worthy recipient’’. “He has been keen to formalise his qualifications as he has done a certain amount of organ building,’’ she said.
She said the scholarship was a special one as Stocker had been an important part of the company.
“Neil was our foreman at the time of the earthquake and losing him was a pretty big blow.’’
She said it had taken a long time to get over his death, and his name was still mentioned, with fondness, in the factory.
“Neil was our foreman at the time of the earthquake and losing him was a pretty big blow.’’
Val Hargraves South Island Organ Company director