Ken Kirkpatrick’s Farewell to His Friends
Old St Paul’s Cathedral, 23 September 2010.
Gate Crashing My Funeral
I find myself in a somewhat unusual position of gate crashing my own funeral.
You might ask why I have done this. Others have asked the same question and have come to the conclusion that it’s because I am a control freak and want to control everything, including the departure process. When I disagreed with Julie at the moment when she offered this thought, I heard a chorus of agreement.
The process of having that whole debate with Julie reminded me of the Robbie Burns quotation:
‘O wad some power the gift tae gie us to see oursels as ithers see us!’
It occurred to me that this gift has already been given to all friends who have the opportunity to provide frank responses and frank advice to their friends, which is a tremendous gift and indeed a duty.
So, being nice to your friends is one thing, but failing to provide the unvarnished truth is quite another.
It has always struck me at the funerals I’ve gone to of other people that I know that the remarks made by people in favour of the deceased were over the top and probably would have embarrassed the deceased had he been present in person.
So, I guess, I’m suggesting that if you wish to discuss amongst yourselves anything about me don’t feel inhibited to be polite or to be accurate. Be straight forward; so, there you are, you’re paying the small price of having to listen to me for a while during these proceedings.
Thanks to Medical Staff
In the funeral pamphlet, you’ll find a copy of a Phillip Markham picture illustrating the Alpha and the Omega. I am able to complete the Omega of my life and to address you, largely because of the unstinting work of a number of friends and assistants.
Foremost amongst these is Alistair Young, my General Practitioner, who has walked with me as a friend and doctor. He has kept me on the straight and narrow on this particular illness and helped me to arrive at the right course of action.
The picture you can see behind me is of me immediately after the first operation some months ago, to reduce the size of the tumour and to take out a sample for biopsy.
I thank Sir Peter Gluckman who, as Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, was in the Department when I arrived one morning and who immediately considered that I looked terrible and ordered me off to get suitable medical advice. This came as a shock to me since I was not feeling great but not feeling particularly ill. Given that I had various appointments in Christchurch and Auckland that afternoon and the following day, the notion of suddenly heading off into limbo did not appeal.
But Peter was adamant. So we went directly to A & E and went into hospital. And my mental reaction was: there’s been no accident, where’s the emergency.
They found this growth inside the top right hand side of the head and you can more or less see where the surgery actually took place. These are the external signs, not the internal where the action really matters.
I thank my neurosurgeon Martin Hunn, and Oncologist David Hamilton.
I thank sincerely the Staff of Cashmere who have also guided me through this Omega of my life.
A Snap Shot of Life History
Family
I was born in and grew up in the heart of Southland, in the town of Gore.
This is a picture of the family home after the refurbishment.
And now here’s a picture of my mother as she was graduating in Home Science from Otago University. She shortly thereafter took up a position on the staff. She did not become a Professional Home Science person but married and raised a family. Here she applied all her knowledge to the health and well being of our father, who was a great keen model engineer. He passed on his interest in how things worked to us boys.
Education
I was proud of my early schooling which culminated in being Dux of Gore High School. I played hockey at school; I did not play cricket or rugby; I wasn’t a particular sporty person.
After High School, at the suggestion of my older brother Brian, I decided to study Chemical Engineering at Canterbury University.
NZ Dairy Research Institute
And you can see now a picture of the D.R.I. in Palmerston North where I got my first job, courtesy of Don King.
My first project at D.R.I. was the investigation of the use of ultrafiltration to recover valuable proteins from whey. This had been the holy grail for whey processing for many decades. It was only the invention of this new process of ultrafiltration that made it a plausible goal.
This next photograph shows me at a dairy factory in Brazil. I had the opportunity to go to Brazil in 1970 and spent six months in Rio de Janiero. This was a remarkable opportunity. People used to say half joking “join the navy and see the world.” For me and many others it was “Join the dairy industry and see the world”. I really enjoyed the visit, a dream sort of location. The Brazilians were such an enthusiastic people. Rio de Janeiro, guarded by the huge statue of Christ the Redeemer, has wonderful beaches. The people love the outdoor life and they are a very lively people.
So from the back-blocks of the Manawatu to one of the great cities of the world, it was quite an exciting development for me and working on a technology that was brand new, and with an international company, being exposed to their way of doing things.
NZ Dairy Board
It was at that stage that the Dairy Board, having established a company in Chicago in the United States to develop the U.S. market for New Zealand milk protein products, decided to appoint a Technical Development Manager to that company. And they cast their eyes around and sort of said “well who have we got?” “Well there’s this fellow who’s down in Brazil” and the job was put to me. Although Dave Woodhams warned of the horrors of Chicago, where there had been riots during the Democratic National Convention in 1968 and he certainly thought it was not a good place to go lightly, I thought, “Well, why not?”
During all this time I was still an employee of the Dairy Research Institute, seconded to the Dairy Board. By the time the position in Chicago was completed I still had to look for a job. The Dairy Board was in the process of appointing technical people to a number of semi-commercial roles at the time and the opportunity came up for me.
This was my first meeting with Bernie Knowles who was a great figure in the dairy industry and more broadly in New Zealand agriculture. He offered me a job setting up the Quality Assurance Section in the Dairy Board.
After setting up the Quality Assurance Section I moved across and became a Technical Manager upon the retirement of Jack Tomlinson. This involved the recruiting and deploying of technical people into the Dairy Board’s global operation. That was a wonderful period because the Dairy Board attracted some fantastic young talent and still does. Working with these people, many of whom are still employed by Fonterra and other food companies and making a major contribution to the New Zealand Dairy Industry, was a real joy.
(Ken at this time (1982) became General Manager of the NZDB Protein Division and inaugural Chief Executive of the Whey products Corporation. While he did not refer to this in his DVD, others who spoke at his funeral mentioned the considerable contribution he made in these roles.)
Massey University
In 1994 I resigned from the Board and took up a position at Massey University, as Professor of Dairy Science and Technology – a Chair endowed by the Dairy Board – and continued the involvement in the recruitment of young people.
I was also involved in supervising graduate research projects at PhD and Masters levels. This brought me into contact with some truly stupendously gifted young people.
Directorships and Farming
After five years at Massey in these various roles I undertook some consulting roles and become involved with a number of innovative small companies with exciting prospects.
By this stage I had become a part owner of a dairy farm and spent quite a bit of time of working with my partners who were in that enterprise: Neil Murphy and Brian Service; and Pat Kelly who was Manager and part owner of the farm. We actually bought several farms but only one remains in the fold and that is in the Southern Hawke’s Bay.
DPMC
I was clearly nearing the end of the career components and needed to consider something else. I had for a long time felt that the idea of retiring had a certain foolishness about it. Although by then I was 65ish I didn’t feel I was ready to give up all work so when the opportunity came along to join the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet I leapt at it.
I regard myself as extremely fortunate to have fallen into that opportunity which has been a wonderful experience over the last five years. I expect to continue to serve in the Department in spite of this illness. The staff members are wonderful people to work with.
It is great being able to make a real contribution to the progress of the country, by focusing thinking on the issues that are really important in key policy areas. The ones I was involved with particularly have been Climate Change, the Primary Sector, Research Science Technology and Innovation which fit well with my involvement with small companies which are all in the innovative technology field developing new products for new markets which is broadly comparable to what I was doing while with the Dairy Board and NZDRI.
Food and Wine
One of the unifying interests that my friends and I have enjoyed for the last several years has been travel, food, wine and so on and wine. And when you become interested in wine it is very easy to buy more than you can usefully consume, so to have an occasion to share some of these special bottles becomes an objective in its own right. As it happens the date of my birthday is the same as the date of the wedding anniversary of my very good friends Ron and Elaine Aird with whom I have travelled extensively in France, Italy and Germany, gaining first hand appreciation of the foods and wines of all those countries.
So we invariably have a shared event, and what you now see is a part of the dinner I put on for – I think it was around about my fiftieth birthday, and one of the Aird’s wedding anniversary. The whole objective was to make it a memorable, flamboyant occasion, and these two puddings were going to be flambéed at that occasion as well. Elaine was shocked when these came out on a plate.
Recognition
This next photograph notes a much more recent event where I was fortunate to be awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the Dairy Division of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology. This singular trophy marks that occasion. There is nothing more rewarding than enjoying the esteem of one’s peers - and this award I certainly regard very highly.
Ken’s Legacy
One of the things one does as one heads towards the end of one’s career is think about what you are going to do with what you have accumulated. And I have thought about it for some time. I have concluded that there is the opportunity to establish scholarships for young people wanting to study the subjects that have been of value and interest to my parents, my brother and me; these include Chemical Engineering, Food Science; Dairy Science and Technology; Pharmacy; Pharmacology.
The concept is to have scholarships that are aimed particularly at supporting people from the back-blocks who might, as I did, fall on their feet and become accepted into a University course in one of those fields. They may need some financial support so I intend establishing a scholarship scheme to be run in conjunction with the Dick and Mary Earle scheme, which is a very well thought through arrangement and some of the funds will be contributed to Dick and Mary’s scheme. But there will be a separate element called the Kirkpatrick Family Technology Scholarship to distinguish from a scholarship in more artistic endeavours that my Dunedin Aunts established.
After-Match Function
There is an after-match function to be held up at the Loaves and Fishes just up the hill beyond the new Cathedral, with the food organized by David the Funeral Director. The wine is provided by me from my cellar and some that will be bought in for the occasion since not everything I have out of the cellar will appeal to everybody.
So I hope that we will see a melding together of people from different backgrounds and vocations.
Final Words
I am reminded of a scene from Hamlet - Polonius is advising his son Laertes upon the latter’s departure to see the world; Laertes was Hamlet’s best friend and Polonius was a courtier in the Danish Court. Polonius said,
“This above all: To thine own self be true”
There is also the memorable line when Polonius was killed by somebody [I think Hamlet] sticking a sword into him with, as the play says, “a thrust through the arras” which appeals to schoolboys everywhere!
The above has been transcribed, with some editorial changes for clarity, from the 20 minute DVD which was played at Ken’s funeral. That DVD was an edited version of three days of filming, during which Ken’s health deteriorated markedly.