KENNETH GREENWELL (14 January 1944-17 April 2016): A Eulogy for My Father, Little Wanganui Hall, Karamea, New Zealand. April 22 2016.

Kia Ora Koutou,

Whakapono e nga iwi ahau. Whakapono e Te Atua.

Whakapono e te Aroha, e mo te katoa.

Tena Koutou. Tena Koutou. Tena Koutou Katoa.

These words in Te Reo Maori open the door to my tribute to my father. It is an endless tribute, coming from a place of unfathomable and everlasting love. 

Translated, my opening message means:

I believe in all of the people. I believe in the source of all things good. I believe in the love of many and the totality of all of these things drawn together.

My father embraced and lived out that message, in Little Wanganui and beyond.

I am the only son of Kenneth Greenwell. I am the only person in the world who called him, and still calls him, Dad. In the past I had issues with the easy and pleasant rapport that Ken Greenwell enjoyed with just about everybody he met. In contrast, he had me doing things that made the Twelve Tasks of Asterix look like holiday camp.  To the untrained eye, he was being hard on me. As I've only come to truly appreciate in the last few days, he was really preparing me for a wonderful and blessed journey through life. 

I often said, "I envy the people who call him Ken. It is so much easier for them."  Now, I realize fully the greatest honor and deepest privilege of being that only person in the world who calls Kenneth Greenwell, Dad.

Today we are all celebrating Dad's life, and I like to think of that celebration as lasting forever, for the ages, like a masterpiece of classical music. We are all the orchestra in the playing out of that masterpiece of Ken Greenwell's life. Those closest to him are connected to the narrative of his life, the melodies and interludes. Others play a few notes on flute; hit the timpani; do a violin solo here, a French horn piece there. But we are all part of that orchestra. We are all part of the masterpiece.

Any rendition of a masterpiece always begins with a few bum notes, tune ups, out of time clanging and constant rehearsals. Gradually, the musicians create beautiful music together. They all know their parts to play and all do their bit. The music from the celebration of the masterpiece of Ken Greenwell's life will reach many people, in every corner of the world. I can assure you of that.

This brings me back to Arohanui - the love of many. My father loved life and people. He loved especially the ideal and reality of community. That is why he loved Little Wanganui and the surrounding district. He despised the injustices that cause human suffering everywhere. He was always on at me to do something about it. 

But what truly unites us all here today is the fact that if Dad wanted something to be done - and knew what needed to be done - he always knew who to call to make it happen. That applied to the upgrade of the Little Wanganui Hall. It applied to Dad urging me to be a part of putting things right in the national/international political arena. On his behalf.

On that count, Queen Mother Dr Delois Blakely, Community Mayor of Harlem and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador to Africa, sends her personal condolences to my family, and the people of Little Wanganui and their district.

My father's life has changed, not ended. Let us all move as one in playing out the Kenneth Greenwell masterpiece.

In closing, I share with you all a dialogue of the heart between my father and I. 

From my father: The last verse of Rudyard Kipling's If, the poem he dedicated to me and and had me commit to memory at the age of eight.....

If you can fill the unforgiving minute, with sixty seconds worth of distance run

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, 

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son

From me to my beloved father, an Irish Blessing (Sung):

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back. 

May the sun shine warm upon your face; 

the rains fall soft upon your fields 

and until we meet again, 

may God hold you in the palm of His hand.