Hundreds flocked to St Peter’s church hall on Monday to celebrate the life of longtime local and Raglan Engineering founder Peter Williams, who died surrounded by family at his Upper Wainui Rd home last week.
They came from near and far, jam-packing the old hall and some even standing outside under brollies listening to the hour-long service for a man renowned for his creativity and ingenuity when it came to all things mechanical or engineered.
Engineering was more than a job to Peter, son Stephen said in a eulogy shared with his brother Matt. “Dad could fix anything.”
Helping them with school projects back in the day wasn’t a simple case of cardboard and scissors, he laughed. “Everything was welded and painted and engineered to perfection.”
Peter’s new shed at home – built after he reluctantly sold his beloved downtown engineering workshop a couple of years ago – was filled with lathes and grinders and hoists, Stephen told the gathering.
And Matt had to agree: “Nine or ten drill presses and 20 different grinders.”
Ever inventive, their father had even made his own urn from a pohutukawa tree at home.
His white-painted casket carried to the hearse at the end of the service was also unique, Matt said, because Peter had specifically wanted a surface his grandchildren could paint and draw on.
Matt also revealed his father had such a “huge involvement” in his own Workshop Brewing build alongside Raglan Engineering in Park Dr – where he worked for 48 years – that there’s a beer named specially after him called ‘Pete’s Pilsner’.
Other family and friends spoke not only of Peter’s creativity but also his generous spirit. “He was deeply inquisitive and wanted to show off his inventions,” said nephew James Ryburn. “He was stoked on life … he had an incredible desire to share and to spread joy.”
Peter was good at thinking outside the box, added civil engineer brother-in-law Murray Cameron, demonstrating a portable device he’d once invented to get the cover off a manhole. “He would make a unique tool (in order) to make a unique product,” Murray explained, then he’d store it away just in case it could be used again.
Old friend Bruce Gavin reinforced how Peter was interested in all things – within the Raglan community where he grew up, its history and by his many connections made through engineering. “He would find bits, make new bits and have a chat … he had an amazing array of skills to solve all sorts of issues.”
Peter was also passionate about his faith and had a lifelong allegiance to St Peter’s Anglican Church. In the lead-up to its centenary celebrations this year he devised a time capsule from a simple stormwater pipe, and also created a miniature model of the church from relics he’d once collected from the site.
One-time St Peter’s minister Kathleen Gavin summed up how we will remember “the things he made for us, mended for us and his friendship”.
