Brian Stephen died, in Christchurch, in January 2014, a few days short of his 83rd birthday (in fact his funeral was held on what would have been his birthday. Unfortunately I was among a number of CAFCA people who couldn’t make it to that, as we were travelling to Marlborough that day for the Waihopai spy base protest). He’d had a series of small strokes over recent years until he had a bigger one which killed him. Brian was a founder member of CAFCINZ/CAFCA in 1975 and continuously remained a member until his death. He was one of the hardy few who always attended the Annual General Meeting – he made a special trip into town to attend the last one, in September 2013, for the sole purpose of paying his sub to me, in cash, in person, as he always did (invariably accompanied by a donation). Having done that he didn’t stay for the actual AGM but turned around and took the bus home again – coming out at night was by then a major undertaking for him. It was the last time we saw him.

He was an absolute stalwart of the Christchurch progressive movement. There would have been very few public meetings, seminars, protests or pickets over the past 40+ years not attended by Brian. He was into everything, going back decades. Nor was he afraid of putting himself at personal risk. I’ll give you one example, of him fearlessly confronting the (literal) running dogs of Yankee imperialism (to use the good old language of yesteryear). In 1972 he was among those who climbed the 800 foot high Mount John (overlooking Tekapo) at night to protest at the US Air Force Observatory that was then on top of it. The cops decided to disperse the seated crowd with boots and dogs (people suffered injuries from both the kicks and dog bites). Not Brian though. When the attack dog came near him (to paraphrase): “I whacked the bastard on the nose with my big torch”. It didn’t come near him again – and that was the last time the cops used dogs against protesters anywhere in New Zealand.

Brian was an active member for many years in what was then called the Engineers Union (now EPMU). He worked for the City Council, living on site at the Colombo Street (Beckenham) water pumping station. In the 80s the Council decided to kick him and his family out of that beautiful little old cottage and he fought a protracted but ultimately unsuccessful battle to stay in his home. That particular struggle took a lot out of Brian – he visibly aged after it. He was a thorn in the Council’s side and they took the opportunity to get rid of him in 1989 when local body amalgamation led to a rationalisation of facilities such as pumping stations. That was the end of his working life.

Brian was a familiar figure in Christchurch, biking everywhere (in recent years he switched to using the bus). He had a kind heart, which manifested itself in ways such as feeding legions of stray cats (nobody else has ever given me their CAFCA sub accompanied by a note written on the back of a Jellimeat tin wrapper). He was a simple man and I mean that in its true sense, not the derogatory one. He had a huge interest in what was going on in the world; he voraciously read books and listened to National Radio. He was terribly affected by the injustices and wrongs at home and abroad and was never shy of saying so in public. He was a man who required patience (not a virtue with which I am overly endowed) and I commend CAFCA’s former long serving Chairperson, Bill Rosenberg, who used to gently accommodate Brian when he invariably rose to speak during the General Business section of our AGM (or at public meetings and seminars organised by CAFCA) and would proceed to tell us what was on his mind, usually accompanied by an account of what he’d recently heard on Kim Hill’s show. Brian was the sort of person my late Mum would have called “a good old stick”. And so he was. Good on you mate, rest in peace. Our condolences to his widow Lillias and daughter Leonie (he was predeceased, in 1993, by his 26 year old son, Edwin, a talented painter).