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As retired Auckland contractor Ivan Whale turns 100 he still manages to keep amazingly active. BY GAVIN RILEY
But there are exceptions and an outstanding one is Ivan Whale (pictured), who as a contractor in the middle of last century was one of the biggest scoria suppliers in Auckland. Ivan recently celebrated his 100th birthday and in doing so proved he really had no need to attend this year’s Contractors’ Federation conference to learn from an expert how to run a business and maintain one’s health at the same time. Ivan marked his big day by holding a party for family and friends at his long-time home in Howick, Auckland. Congratulations from the Queen, the Governor-General and the Prime Minister were among the many cards on display. Ivan looks a good 10 years younger than his age, and although suffering somewhat from failing eyesight and memory is still able to tend his garden and maintain connections with community organisations such as a sailing club, two golf clubs, and the Rotary and Masonic movements, in all of which he has held high office. He also attends his local Anglican church, where a birthday morning tea was put on in his honour. Ivan’s wife of 60 years, Gladys, died in 1995, but he is well looked after by his two daughters, Beverley and Cheryl.
From then through to the late 1970s the company’s red trucks with a smiley green whale on the doors were an increasingly common sight throughout Auckland as the total staff built up to between 50 and 60. Ivan’s scoria from Greenmount quarry (an operation eventually taken over by the Stevenson group) was delivered in bulk to such projects as Auckland airport, the Fergusson wharf reclamation, and building sites all over the city. The Whale group also started Associated Pavers in joint ownership with Ivan’s then son-in-law, Noel Harrison, but the company was eventually sold to Reliable Roads, later to become Fulton Hogan. Whale’s contracting division usually operated four gangs, working in the main as the subcontractor to builders on excavations and siteworks, though later it bid for work as the main contractor – posting “Whales at work” signs on its construction sites. One project, the Auckland University human sciences building, took six years during a time of rampant inflation and produced an escalation claim which was several times the original contract value.
Two Whale employees who are still involved in the Auckland contracting scene were Don Wilkinson, contracts manager from 1972-78, and Ewen Major, plant manager from 1967-73 and a son-in-law of Ivan’s at the time. Ewen recalls a day in 1968 when he asked Ivan if he could play in a Friday afternoon tournament at the Grange Golf Club. Ivan wasn’t keen but Ewen quietly went ahead anyway. He succeeded in carding a hole in one at the par-three fifth and, amazingly, a player in the group behind him repeated his feat. There was quite a furore at the golf club and the evening paper reported the event with a photo of the jubilant golfers. Ewen’s triumph was short-lived. He didn’t lose his job – but stern managing director Vern Avery, an accountant, docked him a day’s pay for having displayed his golfing skills in the firm’s time. Ewen, now territory manager for the Cat Rental Store, describes Ivan Whale as having been a hard taskmaster but very fair and generous with his staff (unless they wanted to play golf during working hours, of course).
Don Wilkinson says Ivan was “very easy to be with” and he also has reason to remember his one-time boss kindly. When Ivan decided to retire from contracting in 1979 at the age of nearly 70, Don was able to take over all the company’s existing contracts, plus a loader and a truck, to start Wilkinson Smith with former Downer colleague Peter Smith. Don says Ivan always looked younger than his years, and recalls: “He was 62 when I built a 17-foot runabout. Down at an eastern beach one Sunday he turned up and asked if he could have a water ski. I could hardly believe it but he had no trouble crossing the wake in style. That was when I learned his age.” Nearly 40 years on, Ivan Whale has no wish to live up to his surname with nimble skimming over the waves. But he’s still remarkably spry and is possibly contracting’s only centenarian. A belated happy birthday, Ivan.
Contractor Vol.34 No.7 August 2010 |
Whether through working too hard or playing too hard – or both – contractors, as a rule, do not live to a great age.
One of eight children, Ivan spent his early life in the Auckland suburbs of Remuera and Onehunga. After working as a grocer, apprentice carpenter and a general contractor and truck driver, he founded his own contracting and quarrying company in Onehunga in 1945 at the age of 35.
Another contract that went just a little awry was one involving several miles of six-barrel cable-ducting for Telecom’s predecessor, the New Zealand Post Office. One very wet night, half a mile of it, already backfilled with fine metal, floated and had to be dug up and relaid.
“He always looked after staff. We had a good relationship and he taught me a lot. He was a pretty astute businessman.”