OBITUARY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27207, 26 November 1953, Page 8

OBITUARY

MR MERVYN DENCH Mr Edward Mervyn Dench, a prominent young engineer in the Ministry of Works, who died recently in Auckland, was born and educated in Christchurch. A son of Mr and Mrs T. E. Dench, of Shirley, he was 28 years old. From St. Andrew’s College, Mr Dench entered the National School of Engineering at Canterbury University College and graduated bachelor of engineering (civil) in 1946, after a year’s service in the Army. At this time he was active in harriers and tramping, a competent musician, and a wellknown member of youth groups at the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church. Joining the Ministry of Works, Mr Dench was first engaged on survey work at the Black Jack’s Point hydroelectric project, and then had two years in the department’s design office in Wellington. There followed three years at the Cobb Valley hydro-electric works in the Nelson Province, where -Mr Dench was second in charge of his division. Early this year he went to Auckland as engineer in charge of the Ministry of Works laboratory.

Mr Dench held associate membership of the Institute of Civil Engineers and membership of the New Zealand Institution of Engineers. He is survived by his wife and infant son.

MR J. W. V. POWELL A former newspaper advertising executive, and one of New Zealand’s foremost authorities on rose growing, Mr John Wilfred Vavasour Powell, died at his home in Palmerston North recently. Elder son of Mr and Mrs C. J. Powell, he was born at Marton 49 years ago, and spent his early years in the Rangitikei district. Serving in the Air Force in World War 11, Mr Powell left newspapers for horticulture, first carrying out research into rose growing at Massey College. He later began a contract rose-growing business, and was known in many parts of New Zealand for his flowers and his lectures. •

He is survival by his wife and daughter. MR H. E. GAZE u The Press” Special Service HAMILTON, November 25. Mr H. E. Gaze, well known in the Waikato and Tauranga, has died at Hamilton, aged 80. Born in Christchurch, he settled at Hamilton 53 years ago as a photographer. At first active in dramatic and operatic work, during the last 30 years he devoted much time to pictorial photography. He was appointed a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in the ’thirties, and his pictures have been exhibited in Britain, France, Spain, and other European countries. Until his retirement in 1948, when he moved to Tauranga, he was an active member of the Waikato Art Society, and for many years ably judged and criticised annual exhibitions. At the 1947 conference of the New Zealand Amateur Photographic Society, he was appointed its first life member. Mr Gaze is survived by his wife, five daughters, and one son.