Monday, 23 January 2012A number of RCW members, led by President James Austin, attended the funeral of David Chapman in Lower Hutt on Friday 19 January.
David had been a member of RCW since 1992 (just short of 20 years) until his resignation at the end of 2011 when he was in the grips of the cancer which finally took his life a few days earlier. David was remembered as a man who was always a gentlemen and always of good humour.
His wife Ann, who many members will recall attended many Rotary events with David, provided the brief synopsis of his career set out below.
1956 – David started his career at the Government Tourist Office in Dunedin (where Ann and David met).
After 5 years there he was seconded to Parliamentary Services and spent 7 years as private secretary 1st to Hon. Dean Eyre, Minister of Defence and Minister of Tourism.
David spent 20 years in the Territorial Army rising to Major as Battalion Commander of 22 Battalion at Fort Dorset and collecting his 20 years service medal from Sir Keith Holyoake.
David also spent time as the Secretary to Hon. Tirekatine Sullivan, Hon. David Thomson and for a short time with the Right Hon. Sir Robert Muldoon before returning to the Tourist Department in the International Tourism sector.
1976 – David was appointed New Zealand Travel Commissioner for 4 years in Melbourne then returned to New Zealand.
1980 – David had two years as Regional Manager to Tourism in Auckland.
1983 – David was appointed National Director for New Zealand Tourism in North America for four years and returned to position of Chief Executive of Commercial Division of Tourist Department taking care of New Zealand Offices and 10 overseas offices.
When the New Zealand Labour Government closed all Government Tourist Offices, he spent 2 years travelling to close all these and then worked with Hugh Rensieir making transition to Chatham Islands from New Zealand Government control and setting up with their independence – 2 years under contract to Internal Affairs finishing off this work.
1992 – David was appointed National Director of NZIM where he worked till his retirement in2009.