Obituaries

A service was held on March 17 to honour the life of Rodney McInnes, Baptist minister at Ponsonby (1966-69), Mosgiel (1970-75), Mt Albert (1975-77), Darfield (1983-90) and Padre for the New Zealand Army at Linton and Burnham (1978-82). 

Rod was remembered as a humble servant, though this wasn’t always the case. Rod, as a young man, was the leader of a South Dunedin gang.

Read more: Rodney William McInnes, 1932–2012

1926-2012

Samson Chowdhury was born in 1926 and educated in India before settling in Ataikula Village in northwest Bangladesh (then newly known as East Pakistan).

He started a small pharmacy in 1958, venturing into a partnership with three friends to form a pharmaceutical company that became the Square Group.

Read more: Samson H. Chowdhury

April 1926 – January 2012

Jill attended Papatoetoe Baptist Church in Auckland from her conversion in 1954 until her admission to the Edmund Hillary Retirement Village Hospital in October 2007. She was incapacitated by Parkinson’s disease.

Born in Auckland, Jill was the twin daughter of Bill and Celia Watson of Mt Eden. She is survived by her twin brother, Jack; eldest brother, Trevor; and her elder brother, Lloyd.

Read more: Jill Celia Johnson

Wynyard Ince Gibson Fountain – 1918-2011

Wyn Fountain was born in Auckland and raised in Herne Bay, Remuera and Mission Bay by his parents, Gibson and Sarah Fountain. His father was a city dentist and a Bible teacher at the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle.

He attended Auckland Grammar School from 1932-1934, where he became involved with Crusaders, a Christian high school movement (now ISCF). The summer camps at Ponui Island impacted his spiritual life as a teenager.

Read more: Mentor and leader left his mark on NZ