Don Polly was never a CAFCA member, and we never met, but he was part of the wider CAFCA team, by being involved with the former Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Don wrote the 2004 Roger Award's Judges' Report (and was one of only two people prepared to put their name on one of these annual Reports). Don's Report, titled "On The Nature Of Business", can be read here.

The 2004 winner was the former Telecom. There were seven finalists. Don wrote: "These seven Roger Award finalists have much in common, as do all the nominees. They all are repeat offenders; amoral exploiters of everyone and everything in their headlong rush to profit and they all go well beyond the expectations of local acceptable business practice (whatever that is) even for foreign transnational corporations".

"They also have a curious sense of righteous indignation when confronted with the effects of their destructive behaviour. Some would say it's in the nature of things business. And they're probably right.

So, the judges' comments about 'the lack of Government action to curb their worst excesses' may be obvious, but it needs repeating".

"If New Zealand had 'a Government focused on the protection of people and the environment, rather than on protecting corporate profit... there may be no need for the Roger Award'. Which, of course, makes this year's long-overdue Special Award for 'Protection of Profit and Privilege' to the Government so relevant. It is appropriate too, that this award is given to the Prime Minister (Helen Clark) on behalf of Government".

"In a real sense, the Government's acquiescence (read participation) is worse if only because the Government purportedly exists solely to serve the interests of New Zealand and New Zealanders. It is not in the nature of Big Business to even want to do so. I congratulate the judges on making the point so emphatically ... The Roger Award has been going since 1997, and like an accounting of most anti-social type behaviour, recidivism is a problem. The unruly do reappear again and again... Finally, there is the Government. That too, is part of the nature of business".

In 2018, when I announced the end of the Roger Award, Don Polly e-mailed me: "Sorry to see the Roger Award fade out. I ... have been a fervent reader and admirer of both the nominations and the results ever since the Award started. Thank you" (11/4/18). And thank you, Don, for your active involvement in the Roger Award, which was a key part of CAFCA's arsenal against the transnational corporations for the best part of 20 years.

DON POLLY

- Allison Webber

Published in the Press, 28/11/20. Ed.

Donald Frank de Mejia Polly, b Denver, Colorado, February 21, 1936, m (1) Mary McCally, Las Vegas (diss), 1s, 1d; (2) Barbara MacLennan Long Beach California 1s, 1d (adopted) diss; (3) Allison Lynne Webber, Paekakariki, also loving stepfather to Tim Davey (Melbourne) and Lucy Anderson-Weastell (Paraparapumu), d Wellington, November 4, 2020.

Don Polly was a warm, ethical "man of the people" who lived by the values he so fervently espoused. The pillars of his life were family, socialism, unionism and journalism. A former US Navy officer, Californian State Parole Officer and motor mechanic. Don arrived in New Zealand in 1970 with his wife and four children to take up a job as a probation officer in Porirua. He came with energy and attitude and claimed to have "reluctantly chosen the Queen over Richard Nixon".

A born rebel from the get go, Don was a great supporter of the "underdog", a veteran campaigner for numerous causes (anti-Vietnam war, anti-Springbok tour, anti-racism, anti-royalty) and a life-long demonstrator. Connecting and engaging the community was always at the centre of his life with much of it spent working as a full-time volunteer.

Veteran Community Newspaper Editor

His greatest pleasure came from the achievements of his family and the myriad young people he helped and continued to support as a non-judgmental friend. However, the thing he was most proud of in his work was establishing two community papers in the Wellington region: Te Awa-iti in Porirua (1982-1991) and the Paekakariki Xpressed (2001-2010).

The vision for both ventures was born out of earlier years in the former Communist Party and selling the People's Voice on Cuba Street. This experience sowed the seeds for a "ground-up" community newspaper in Cannons Creek written, produced, and managed largely by volunteers. Originally laid out and pasted up (old fashioned style) from a garage in Cannons Creek, it introduced stories and articles in different languages, had attitude, challenged the status quo and gave the establishment a feisty nudge with a Leftwing perspective.

The first, four-page issue took over six months to produce and was delivered to 4,000 homes. By the end of the first year a regular 12-page paper was delivered to 13,000 homes every three weeks and by the end of the decade it circulated to more than 21,000 homes and businesses in 30 communities from Grenada to Paraparaumu, Pauatahanui and Horokiwi. By the time it closed in 1991 over 1,000 people had written at least one article, some of them several dozen and some hundreds.

The much smaller Paekakariki Xpressed was a not-for-profit community newspaper in the same vein. With over 150 community correspondents aged from 13 to 85, the paper succeeded because the community loved it, took ownership of it and contributed actively to its life. It started out in 2001 as a four-page paper and, over time, grew to a 40-60 page monthly circulating in Paekakariki village, Raumati South and the Raumati business district. When the Xpressed closed down its trust deed, overseen by Paekakariki Informed Community (PICI) was picked up by Paekakariki FM. Don remained a regular contributor to the station through his popular jazz programme - From Bop To Blues.

Often described as "a big mouthed, blue-eyed Mexican boy with a smile that wouldn't quit", Don was born in Denver, Colorado, where his father was Editor of the Rocky Mountain News. The family subsequently moved from Denver, to Albuquerque in New Mexico, Salt Lake City, Evansville, Indiana and finally Long Beach, California. Many of these moves were motivated by his father seeking new jobs and his parents looked for medical help for Don's younger brother (Doug) who was born with cerebral palsy.

Don strongly identified strongly with the Mejia (Mexican) side of the family. His mother was one of six and his father (Jack Campbell Polly) an only child. There were always close connections with his extensive and colourful family who'd established themselves in and around Salt Lake City after the Mexican revolution in 1910.

The impact of his immediate family lifestyle was that Don went to 14 different schools, including spending time in an orphanage and at boarding school. Aged 16, disenchanted with school and feeling that he'd disappointed his parents, Don packed a bag and climbed out the window one night to "see America".

US Navy, Motor Mechanic, American Football

He quickly landed a job selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door. Working from the back of a large trailer truck he and the "Mag Crew", a group of illegally under-age boys, arrived in different towns and cities to door knock and cover assigned "beats" on foot. This laid the groundwork for his "no fear" life-time aptitude for sales. It also showed his ability to apply charm, hard, work and a winning smile to life.

A four-year stint as a junior journalist/photographer in the US Navy also saw him on a heavy cruiser travelling up the Mekong River following the French defeat in Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Effectively this was the end of French colonial rule before the partitioning of Vietnam and the Vietnam War.

At the same time, he was writing "local boy makes good" stories and sending them back to the US. To add a bit of jazz to the mix he also worked for the Armed Forces Radio Service in the Philippines, running a late-night music programme. The journalism theme was to be picked up later in New Zealand when he edited the in-house magazine, Update, for the Open Polytech. After leaving the Navy Don attended California State University in Long Beach, graduating with a degree in sociology. He then worked for ten years as a motor mechanic - later returning to his trade in the Wellington area in 1973.

His experience in the motor trades ranged over two decades in which time he owned and operated his own garage and taught motor mechanics in both the United States and New Zealand. He worked "on the line" in assembly plants and was also employed as a tow truck driver on California's deadliest stretch of highway, an auto-specialist in brakes, front-end and tune-up and a general line mechanic. Other big passions were: family, reading international and political non-fiction, learning - he went to university to start a law degree aged 76 - and American football. He coached and refereed American football teams in and around the Wellington region for years and never missed watching the season.

When he was 60 Don and his now deceased brother Doug were excited and proud to find their half-brother Rod Mollenauer, an Emeritus Professor of German Literature at Austin State University in Texas. Don died of pancreatic cancer in the Mary Potter Hospice in Wellington on November 4. He is survived by his wife Allison Webber, brother Rob Mollenauer, sons Blair and Jack Polly and Tim Davey and daughters Dawn Roscoe (Polly), Babette (Polly) and Lucy Anderson-Weastell.