Locals presented with New Year honours

Good deeds seldom go unnoticed and two locals have been singled out in the 2017 New Year Honours list. Career fireman Maurie Doughty received a Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) for services to the New Zealand Fire Service (NZFS) and Jill Corkin received the Member of New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to education.

Maurie Doughty – NZ Fire Service
Maurie assumed the role of Chief Fire Officer in Mangawhai in 1998 on the retirement of Des Partington. He held the post until 2014 when he retired after 18 years with the brigade. However he had been attached to the Fire Service since 1974 on a regular intermittent basis.

A Double Gold Star presentation was made to Maurie in conjunction with his retirement to mark a total of 54 years with the NZFS during which he faced, and dealt with, many challenges and changes within the service.

He was also on hand for the jubilee to celebrate the last 50 years of the Mangawhai Brigade held in July 2016.

The Mangawhai Volunteer Fire Brigade are very pleased to announce the award of QSM and congratulate former CFO and SSO Maurice Doughty for services to the New Zealand Fire Service and the community.

Jill Corkin – Service to Education
Though not so well known in Mangawhai until recently, Jill Corkin has nonetheless spent a 30-year career at the coalface of education in New Zealand. She has also been involved in some of the pivotal changes in education in New Zealand.

She was lecturing at Wellington School of Education in 1989 when the Lange government announced the Tomorrows Schools reforms, which not only shifted management of schools from the Ministry of Education to locally elected boards of trustees but Ministry staff almost immediately dropped from 200 to 12 with Jill running seminars around the country training the new boards on their role.

Later, she helped establish principal training courses at Massey University in Palmerston North and in Albany.

More recently, she was president of the Auckland Primary Principals’ Association in 2013/14, representing 480 primary principals in the region.

Following posts of principal at Pakuranga Heights Primary School and Victoria Avenue School in Remuera, Jill was founding principal of Snells Beach School, instrumental in shaping the school, working for over a year before it opened in 2009 – an equally daunting, exciting and satisfying time she says.

Following her retirement from Snells Beach School she then took up the role of convenor of the 2016 Trans-Tasman Conference organising the hosting of over 900 delegates from education sectors of New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific.

Until recently Jill has also been working on the Government taskforce looking at updating the Education Act and continues ‘keeping her hand in’ the education sector as conference convenor for the 2017 and 2018 New Zealand Principals' Federation national conference as well.

Now working alongside husband Alan as joint owner of Mike Pero Mangawhai, Jill expects to have more time to spend with their six children and new grandchild.

QSM: NZ Fire Service stalwart Maurie Doughty pictured around his retirement in 2014.

MNZM: Jill Corkin’s 30-year career has seen many pivotsl changes in education.