Deaths of Islands people

Rev. Dr. W. F. Paton The death occurred in Victoria recently of the Rev. Dr. W, F. Paton, missionary on Ambrym, New Heb rides, from the 1930’5, and grandson of the famous missionary, Dr. John G. Paton. The “W” stood for William, but he v/as usually known as “Wilf”

Dr. William Paton first went to Ambrym in 1934 after a year on Paama Island. Between spells in Aus tralia, he was a missionary on Ambrym until 1955. His doctorate was gained by a thesis on the language and customs of Ambrym and, while Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Tasmania for a period, he translated the Gospel of St. John into the Ambrym language.

His famous grandfather went to the New Hebrides in 1858 where he carried out missionary work on Tanna. His children and grand children carried on the work after him.

Rev. Bourn Heine The Rev. Bourn Heine, a leading Marshall Islander, died recently in Micronesia.

He was father of Carl Heine, Deputy District Administrator of the Yap District. He was also uncle of Dwight Heine, special consultant to the High Commissioner, and John Heine, principal of the Marshall Islands High School.

The Rev. Heine was the minister of the Congregation United Churches of Micronesia; he was also for many years president of the Conference of Churches in the Marshalls, as well as principal of Marshalls Junior High School.

He is survived by his wife and 10 children; one in Yap, another in Vietnam, two attending US schools and the others in the Marshalls.

Mr. Takao Tinirau Mr. Takao Tinirau, one of the first Cook Islanders to graduate from Fiji Medical School, died at his home in Rarotonga on November 14 after a long illness. He was 60.

He and Dr. Tau Cowan, the first Cook Islands men to graduate from the school, returned to the Cooks in 1932 and for many years Takao served in the dual capacity of doctor and resident agent in the outer islands. In 1947, he was acting Resi dent Agent and Medical Officer at Penrhyn, and later RA and MO in Pukapuka. In August, 1953, he was

transferred to Manihiki as RA where he served for one year. He became official interpreter in Rarotonga for the Legislative Assembly and for various government departments.

Bad health dogged him in recent years. He was the third child of the late Mr. W. P. Browne, a well-known businessman, and was adopted by the late Makea Tinirau Ariki. Takao Tinirau is survived by his wife, seven children and many grandchildren.

Tepai Tinomana Ariki More than 1,000 people attended the funeral of Tepai Tinomana Ariki, who died in Rarotonga on November 26. He was 52. Mourners included the NZ High Commissioner and Mrs.

Davis, and the Premier and Mrs.

Henry.

Tinomana Ariki was elected as Tinomama Ariki in 1948, was a life member of Tereora College com mittee and an elder of the Cook Islands Christian Church.

He is survived by his wife, 14 children and nine grandchildren.

Mr. Eugene Souligny

Mr. Eugene Souligny, a senior Law Enforcement Co-ordinator on the personal staff of the Governor of California, Mr. Ronald Reagan, was on holiday in Tonga with his wife Darken, when he died of a heart attack on November 11.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Souligny were radio hams and had planned their holiday to Tonga as a DXpedition—a DXpedition being where a radio ham sets up a station in a remote area to allow amateur stations all over the world to contact that area.

They were able to operate their station for only a week prior to Mr.

Souligny’s death.

Prior to coming to Tonga, Mr. and Mrs. Souligny, from Sacramento, California, donated a small model aeroplane engine and a geiger counter to the science section of Tonga College.

Mr. Souligny was buried in Tonga.

Nurse Grace Morrison Nurse Grace Morrison, something of a national figure in Fiji, has died, aged 77. Born in Suva and trained as a nurse at the old Suva hospital, Nurse Morrison later went to Sydney where she trained as a midwife at the Crown Street Hospital.

Returning to Fiji in 1924 she opened a nursing home for expectant

mothers in Waimanu Road, Suva, near the present Colonial War Memorial Hospital, delivering more than 3,000 babies during her long career. The Morrison Maternity Unit at the hospital was named after her.

In 1952 she became a Member of the Order of the British Empire. She retired about 15 years ago.

Nurse Morrison was buried at the old Suva Cemetery. She is survived by two brothers and a sister, all in Fiji.

Joe Pachernegg

Joe Pachernegg, who died in his 72 ft brigantine, Cannibal, in Madang, in New Guinea in December, aged 48, was one of those sturdy characters who proved that the age of adventure has not passed.

He had served in the German Navy during World War 11. Then he started to sail a yacht round the world, was wrecked in the Galapagos, where he was marooned for 18 months before being picked up by another cruising yacht.

He finally found his way to New Guinea where he was a trawlermaster for the Administration, and where he met a young Australian nurse, Sister Benita Burge.

He also acquired another yacht he called Okeanos, and in 1962 he and Benita began a long cruise in Okeanos which eventually took them to the Caribbean (where Joe skippered a luxury cruiser for tourists for about a year) and back through the Pacific.

They had married aboard Okeanos in Valparaiso in 1963, and in Sydney in 1966 Joe became a naturalised Aus tralian, also in a ceremony aboard Okeanos.

Back in New Guinea, Benita re turned to nursing, and Joe continued to fit out the ferro-concrete Cannibal which he had built and launched 12 months ago. It was his dream to use her for tourist charters.

He was found on her cabin floor with an electric lead in his hand, accidentally electrocuted. He was buried at sea, off Cannibal.

Captain J. D. Campbell

Captain J. D. Campbell, who lived in Rarotonea for over 40 years, died at his daughter’s home in Ellersie, near Auckland, on November 12 after a long illness. He was in his 80’s.

A veteran of World War I, who saw service at Gallipoli and with the Royal Flying Corps, “J.D.” was always fiercely proud of his Scots ancestry and of the military discipline he cherished. He came to Rarotonga in 1919 and later with his wife, Poko, settled at Turoa, near Titikaveka, on Rarotonga.

He worked with a Cook Islanders’

marketing organisation in the 1930’s and as local representative of the New Zealand National Airways Cor poration, when it was flying a Dakota service to Aitutaki and Rarotonga after World War 11.

A friend of Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, Captain Campbell revived the scouts movement in the Cooks, which had begun under the guidance of Geoffrey Henry, father of the present Premier. Over the years he kept scouting popular on both Rarotonga and the outer islands.

He also encouraged the girl guides movement in the Cooks, and, shortly before his death, received the MBE for his work.

He is survived by his wife and two married daughters.

In Sydney in December, a long time friend, Dr. W. G. Coppell, former Deputy Director of Education in the Cooks, said of Captain Campbell: “His friends will always recall times spent at his house at Turoa, being served with tea and cakes, listening to reminiscences of the surprisingly wide circle of ‘J.D.’s’ eminent acquaintances; wandering by the tennis court where international stars played in the days of the old Union Company mail steamers; being shown the miniature turtles and being told of their wanderings as far afield as Avaua, some 10 miles distant. There was also the set of instruments with which weather re cordings were made to Titikaveka over the decades.”

Bishop A. W. Baumgartner

Bishop A. W. Baumgartner, Resi dential Bishop of the Diocese of Agana, Guam, which includes the Marianas and Wake Island, died in hospital in Guam on December 18. aged 71.

He was a loved and respected figure, who arrived in Guam from the United States in 1945 to find 32,000 Chamorro Catholics, being administered by a handful of clergy, with all but one church demolished, and no Catholic schools. So he be came a builder.

The Guam Pacific Sunday News said of him in December: “What Bishop Baumgartner accomplished after that beginning will remain a living legend of the vision and dreams of a dedicated man.”

Bishop Baumgartner was born in New York and was professed as a Canuchin. He was a distinguished academic, and among his degrees was Drctor of Divinity.

He leaves a sister and two brothers, all living in America.