Remembering Rod Donald positively
MAYOR’S COLUMN
The last time I saw Rod Donald we were on a fun run together. Pam and I walked it at a brisk trot. Rod ran it; twice, just because he could. It sums up Rod and his profound zest for life which made his death all the more shocking.
In fact, of all the people I know, Rod still seems about the least suited of all to not be here.
For years, when I thought I might be pushing it a bit with the meetings, the phone calls and the schedule, I could always console myself with the thought of Rod. A truly busy man.
Rod Donald, city MP and Green Party co-leader, died on 6 November. He was 48.
Rod Donald was also one of those rare gems who seemed to be able to know everybody and everything that was going on at any given moment. Like the late Ian Howell, former councillor, former anchor of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association and much-missed personal friend, Rod seemed to be able to do all this without trampling on too many toes. It is a gift that I can’t lay claim to having gained quite as much mastery in.
In the immediate grief after we lost Rod I have to say he would have been slightly puzzled if someone, somewhere, had not saluted his skills as a gossip. I’ll do it here.
Rod hoovered up information like a wonderful Green vacuum cleaner. He was one of those highly evolved gossips that you could play a really good game of “swaps” with.
His grasp of the vagaries of humanity was huge, as was his general acceptance that the vast majority of us come with a few design flaws. He was that rarest of creatures, a pragmatic idealist.
Just right after Rod died I also made the point publicly that Rod’s networking and vision skills made him one of those other rare beasts, a public service entrepreneur. The difference between public service and private service entrepreneurs is subtle, but distinct.
What Rod did so well was identify gaps in the public good market, devise ways to fill that gap and then get it done. From Piko, to Trade Aid, to Tenants’ Protection, even, I think, the Community Law Centre and elsewhere, Christchurch is full of robust common-good services that Rod helped get up and running.
He was also, of course, one of the catalysts behind the Christchurch City Council getting the recycling message so early and so strongly.
Dynamic, and with his eye almost always firmly set on two or three targets at once, I have no doubt at all that Rod could have been a major wealth creator in the private sector if he had so wanted.
It is another major legacy he leaves behind, the proof that an idealistic goal can be attained all the better if the fiscal detail is also well done. Or, as the old saying goes, “faith can move mountains, but bring a shovel.”
One of my friends told me that spookily on the next night after Rod left us he ended up tuning into the Maori TV channel just in time to see Martin Luther King give his spine-chilling “I have been to the mountaintop” speech. It’s the one just before Rev King was killed where he says he had been to the mountaintop and seen the promised land.
He also said in passing that longevity has its merits, but not for all. As we have just all experienced with Rod.
I think Rod too got pretty close to seeing the promised land at times. He was a wonderful example of how making politics personal adds up to a life of integrity and strength.
Rod was far too valuable to Christchurch for the city to rush into any form of memorial that is not as robust and real as Rod was himself. We will remember this remarkable man well, but we will also do it in a way that has real substance.
Rod would have expected nothing less of us.
To Nicola and the girls, and to Rod’s mum and dad, my thoughts are with you at this terrible time. May he rest in peace.
Mayor of Christchurch
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