He was little more than a boy when he joined the Air Force in 1943. He served in New Zealand and then obtained a transfer to the Army, joining the Maori Battalion in Italy. It was there that I first met him. He went on to Japan from Italy with the New Zealand Army unit and I came home and it was some years before we met again. When John was discharged in 1946 he attended the Auckland Teachers' College for two years. He spent 1949 as a teacher at Te Kaha Maori District High School and at Nuhaka Maori School. From 1949 to 1957 he taught at St. Stephen's School, leaving there to become a specialist teacher in Maori studies, particularly of the Maori language. This was a period of rewarding activity. He visited many schools and lectured for the Auckland University's adult education centre. In this time he worked on methods of teaching Maori which culminated in the publication of his textbooks, called appropriately ‘Te Rangatahi’. His association with the schools was very close and extended into spheres other than language teaching. It would seem, indeed, that to many of his pupils—and other staff members too—his relationship was more like that of a brother than simply a teacher. Queen Victoria School and St Stephen's were very close to his heart—as were all the Maori schools—and to them, his loss was as that of a greatly loved brother. His post with the Education Department after leaving St Stephens was that of Maori language officer. Later he was appointed assistant officer for Maori education. Both these posts carried New Zealand-wide responsibilities and so John became very widely known. His immediate superiors, Mr R. Bradly, now Auckland regional superintendent of education, and Mr D. Jillett, former officer for Maori education, found in him a competent, cheerful and dedicated assistant, immensely hard-working and enthusiastic. The tragedy of his early death is all the more poignant because it came only several months after that of Mr Jillett, a man of deep understanding of Maori life and educational problems and a person whom John—and all who knew him—held in respect and affection. John was an enthusiastic sportsman, playing rugby, tennis, table tennis, golf, softball and bowls. He represented Auckland at softball and table tennis. He was a New Zealand tennis umpire and was associated with the administration of Maori rugby in Auckland. He had a deep interest and considerable knowledge of historical matters, which was reflected in his membership of the Auckland regional committee of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. His knowledge of the background of Maori life was shown in his membership of the Polynesian Society, the Education Department's Committee on the Maori Language, and the Anthropology and Maori race section of the Auckland Institute and Museum, of which body he served a term as chairman. He was deeply interested in welfare matters. He was a vice-president of the Auckland Boystown Police and Citizens' Committee and for the past seven years conducted a club for Maori inmates of Auckland prison. Of all his work, the section I admired most was this utterly selfless devotion to these men in prison. There were almost tears of joy in his voice when he rang me one morning not long after the trouble at Auckland prison to say he had received word from “his boys” that none of them had been involved. Their moving tribute to him was published in the October issue of the New Zealand Maori Council's newsletter. John was patron of the New Zealand Federation of Maori Students, co-chairman of the Maori Education Foundation's Auckland committee, president of the Mangere Marae Society and an executive member of the Akarana Marae Society. All worthy Maori causes could claim his support. He was a member of the Anglican committee which organised the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of Samuel Marsden's first sermon, and also assisted the Auckland Maori Catholic Society in its move to establish a centre in Auckland. He was associated with and often initiated campaigns to raise funds to assist Maori sportsmen and students. Among those he helped were the tennis champion Ruia Morrison, the golfers Sherill Chapman and Walter Godfrey, the table tennis player Neti Davis, the artist Ralph Hotere and a Rotary scholar Bill Tawhai. John gave radio broadcasts from time to time and featured in two notable television interviews. This is a very impressive list of achievements for a man who had not reached the age of 40. But revealing as it is, it gives no more a picture of the John Waititi whom we