Dennis HAMBLIN Obituary

We send our warm regards to the family of our recently deceased Founding and Life Member Dennis Hamblin. We believe that Dennis may well be the only career accountant to have a gallery named after him and o permanent Heritage Art display available to the public! Dennis was a founding member of The Coach House Trust, now Lake House Trust and in the mid-late 90's helped save and rebuild what is now Lake House Arts Centre. With great foresight, prior to removal of the building from it's original site, Dennis created a suite of black and white details of the house, many of which no longer exist in their original form. The suite are shown on permenent display in the upstairs hallway of Te Whare Roto o Toi - Lake House Arts. The suite had been lost for many years, and was found again in 2019, when it featured in the Ogle Cafe Gallery for the Auckland Photography Festival. Additionally, in 2020, as a part of 20th Anniversary Celebrations a section of the Arts Centre was renamed the Hamblin Gallery, in honour of Dennis' contribution as one of the original accounts managers and Trustees for the Lake House Trust. The Gallery is one of the most accessible for artists to hire in Auckland and often displays donated artworks that when sold, contribute to scholarships we offer for children's art classes in the year. Dennis is fondly remembered by remaining members and was always kept up to date with Lake House Arts activities. Some of the members messages-

"Genevieve...(Becroft) was the person who snared him, when we needed a Treasurer that met the requirements of the major funders... he decided to pursue Maya, a fellow-tramper he had met in Taupo, and move to Wellington. Good to see that they married and had 25+ years together. The thing that I remember most about his move South was that we had to remove all the thousands of chimney bricks from his property that we had just stacked there three months previously!!!"

"His photographs are wonderful. So good that we have them."

"I remember Dennis as a softly spoken humble man who had the foresight to record all the fine architectural details that may have been lost or damaged in the ` move´ ! An important visual record then and now ."

"I certainly remember Dennis ... He is definitely a Lake House "Name"."

"Sorry to hear of Dennis' passing. He was such a gentle man with a great sense of dry humour.

I remember moving all those bricks to his property and stacking them with Duane and the kids helping "

On behalf of the current and former Lake House Arts Trustees, we send our warm condolences to the Hamblin Family and friends of Dennis and rest assured, his legacy in part continues here at Lake House Arts!