Roger MURRAY Obituary

Great guy to work and socialize with. My condolences to the family.

My Brother Rog

Rog and I didn't grow up together. When I was at primary school in Paekakariki, Rog was at secondary school in Wellington. He lived with our grandparents in Thompson Street Wellington. It was one of those two storey Victorian houses but only about one room wide. That house was still standing when I was last in Wellington in the early 2000s.
Rog went to Wellington College where he excelled at rugby and did OK academically. He became both captain of the 1st fifteen and also the Head Prefect. We had in common, his rugby coach, Sam Meads who later became the Principal of my 1st secondary school. Sam often mentioned Rog with fond memories of their rugby years at Wellington College. Rog was also reputed to be the oldest Head Prefect they had ever had at Wellington College. I suppose he stayed on for an Upper 6th year..
I recall an annual rugby match between Wellington College and Nelson College and Mum and I had travelled by ferry to the South Island ( Picton?) and then to Nelson. I still remember the match because Rog got a blood nose and had to leave the field. I howled my eyes out. My poor big brother!
Before professional sport overtook us all, those who excelled at sport were snapped up by big companies and given scholarships to study at university. Rog was no exception and worked for Shell Oil in Wellington for a few years. I don't think he had a desk job in mind for an kon going career, so when our mother saw an advertisement in the Evening Post for pilot training he followed up on it. It was a unique scheme where the RNZAF did the training for future commercial pilots. Rog was one of the lucky few chosen for this course. Training was initially at Taieri in Dunedin and then Wigram in Christchurch.
I remember the incredible pride of being at the airbase in Wigram with our Mum for the graduation on a very hot day . The graduates stood at attention in that heat, one even fainted, until they were all presented with their wings.
A memorable day!
The rest is well documented. He became a captain with NAC until the merger with Air NZ where the NAC pilots lost their seniority and it wasn't long before he went overseas to fly for Malaysian Airlines, Nigeria Air ( he nearly succumbed to malaria there ) and finally onto the jumbos with Singapore Airlines.
More recently we attended Rog's 87th birthday bash that Ailsa put on for him in Russell. A month earlier he had been advised to put his house in order by a visiting Oncologist who said he had about 6 months to live. A complete misdiagnosis ! At the party I loved Donny telling Rog he got us there under false pretences with us thinking he was on the way out!
It came to pass that it was the last time we saw Rog.
RIP big brother