Post by nzbc on Dec 23, 2014 20:51:46 GMT 12
Mollie Ngan Kee
Mollie Ngan Kee achieved firsts as Hutt community-builder
Hutt obituary Mollie Ngan Kee achieved firsts as Hutt community-builder
SIMON EDWARDS
Last updated 15:24 14/08/2013
Energy and grace: Mollie Ngan Kee made family and helping out in the community the focus of her life.
New Zealand's first female Chinese Justice of the Peace, city councillor, deputy mayor and marriage celebrant has been described as "passionately family orientated".
Mollie Ngan Kee, a driving force behind many Hutt Valley community organisations, died peacefully on July 22 after suffering a stroke. She was 87.
Mollie lived her life to the full right till the end; her son Mark said she was attending meetings and going to tai chi and exercise classes in her last week.
A Lloyd Morgan Lions Award and Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship (1998), Lower Hutt Civic Award (1999) and appointment as Companion of the Queen's Order (QSO, 2001) show how much her community service was valued.
But at her service at St James' Church, speakers who remembered all Mollie's good deeds had as much to say about her personal qualities, such as her gentle wisdom, loyalty, dignified grace and humour.
Tim Ngan Kee said his mother had an ability to bring calm and balance to people and situations.
"She was like Quickeze for the soul. She was one of those people who, if she was in the room, you immediately felt more at ease. Things just seem calmer somehow."
Born the fifth of 10 children, the Kwok family were fruit and vegetable providers in Wellington and strong in the Chinese community. Mark Ngan Kee said his mother was strong at studies and in the sporting arena at basketball (now netball), tennis and table tennis.
Family stories have it that because she was taller than her little brother Frank, early on Mollie took the role of "boy" in the fruit shop, and was her dad's "go to" person to wash the carrots, change the light bulbs, replace fuses.
Showing the leadership and organisational skills that were to become hallmarks of her life, at age 18 she was instrumental in setting up Wellington's first Chinese youth club, the Chinese Progress Club, and the first Double 10 Sports Tournament. The latter grew into the NZ Chinese Association's flagship Easter Sports Tournament.
Frank Kwok boarded in Dunedin with William (Bill) Ngan Kee, as both studied medicine at Otago University and that's how Mollie was introduced to Bill.
Mollie and Bill married in 1954, and soon after their arrival in Lower Hutt, they moved to Stokes Valley where Bill became a pillor of the community as a doctor.
He worked 43 years in general practice, as one of the last GP obstetricians. He would regularly work 80-hour-plus weeks, and the couple set up the Stokes Valley Medical Centre in the 1990s where daughters Susan and Vicki still work.
Tim, Mark and their sisters Susan and Vicki describe wonderful childhoods and as 14 grandchildren and a great-grandchild arrived, the Ngan Kee "Saturday family nights" - open to the extended family - were filled with laughter, talk and good food.
Just as Bill threw himself into being a family doctor, Mollie was hugely energetic in the community.
Friend and fellow JP Connie Olsen said for 10 years Mollie was a driving force in Save the Children Fund, for which she was vice-president and collections co-ordinator.
She was a patron of Stokes Valley and Taita Plunkets, a member of the Hutt Valley Community Arts Council, a member for six years of the Taita College board of governors and an enthusiastic contributor to the founding of the Stokes Valley swimming pool.
Mark Ngan Kee says people would tell her mother she should run for the city council - "So she did".
"I remember the way mum mobilised the four of us, plus dad of course . . . I think we ran along every street in Lower Hutt delivering her campaign pamphlets."
She was on the council for two terms from 1977, and was the highest polling candidate the second time she stood. She became deputy mayor in Mayor (Sir) John Kennedy-Good's administration.
Mollie was instrumental in setting up the Stokes Valley Community House in 1978, still a well-used space and the prototype for similar community houses in other parts of the city.
A member of the Wellington Hospital Board from 1983 to 1986, Mollie was a regional and district chairwoman of the Hutt Regional Community Mental Health Services, and helped establish Hillview in Lower Hutt to promote community mental health and provide a sanctuary for those needing help.
Mollie was a marriage celebrant for 12 years, and loved being part of those happy occasions.
Her hard work as foundation member and eventually vice- president of the Hutt Ethnic Council was recognised with a life membership in 2010.
Connie Olsen would sit with Mollie as JPs on Saturday morning court sessions hearing bail and remand applications. "It was a privilege to work with Mollie. Her sense of fun was contagious . . . I believe I learned patience and tolerance; she was inspirational."
Mollie became active on the JP's Hutt Valley executive council and on the phone organising people to come to events, and contribute to fundraising raffles. She was gentle "but relentless", Connie recalled.
Mollie and Bill made three family trips home to China, the second two with all the grandchildren, to give them an understanding of their ancestry.
Mark Ngan Kee said his mother "lost her rock" when Bill died in 2009, but kept up community and family activities.
He and his siblings said with their mother they were never in doubt about her standards concerning what was right and wrong, what was fair and unfair.
"But just as importantly, Mum had the ability in her calm, considered and compassionate way to apply these standards with an even hand, where a best outcome is achieved with the minimum of conflict and the maximum of agreement . . . an amazing gift."
www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/hutt-news/9033165/Mollie-Ngan-Kee-achieved-firsts-as-Hutt-community-builder
- Hutt News
Mollie Ngan Kee achieved firsts as Hutt community-builder
Hutt obituary Mollie Ngan Kee achieved firsts as Hutt community-builder
SIMON EDWARDS
Last updated 15:24 14/08/2013
Energy and grace: Mollie Ngan Kee made family and helping out in the community the focus of her life.
New Zealand's first female Chinese Justice of the Peace, city councillor, deputy mayor and marriage celebrant has been described as "passionately family orientated".
Mollie Ngan Kee, a driving force behind many Hutt Valley community organisations, died peacefully on July 22 after suffering a stroke. She was 87.
Mollie lived her life to the full right till the end; her son Mark said she was attending meetings and going to tai chi and exercise classes in her last week.
A Lloyd Morgan Lions Award and Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship (1998), Lower Hutt Civic Award (1999) and appointment as Companion of the Queen's Order (QSO, 2001) show how much her community service was valued.
But at her service at St James' Church, speakers who remembered all Mollie's good deeds had as much to say about her personal qualities, such as her gentle wisdom, loyalty, dignified grace and humour.
Tim Ngan Kee said his mother had an ability to bring calm and balance to people and situations.
"She was like Quickeze for the soul. She was one of those people who, if she was in the room, you immediately felt more at ease. Things just seem calmer somehow."
Born the fifth of 10 children, the Kwok family were fruit and vegetable providers in Wellington and strong in the Chinese community. Mark Ngan Kee said his mother was strong at studies and in the sporting arena at basketball (now netball), tennis and table tennis.
Family stories have it that because she was taller than her little brother Frank, early on Mollie took the role of "boy" in the fruit shop, and was her dad's "go to" person to wash the carrots, change the light bulbs, replace fuses.
Showing the leadership and organisational skills that were to become hallmarks of her life, at age 18 she was instrumental in setting up Wellington's first Chinese youth club, the Chinese Progress Club, and the first Double 10 Sports Tournament. The latter grew into the NZ Chinese Association's flagship Easter Sports Tournament.
Frank Kwok boarded in Dunedin with William (Bill) Ngan Kee, as both studied medicine at Otago University and that's how Mollie was introduced to Bill.
Mollie and Bill married in 1954, and soon after their arrival in Lower Hutt, they moved to Stokes Valley where Bill became a pillor of the community as a doctor.
He worked 43 years in general practice, as one of the last GP obstetricians. He would regularly work 80-hour-plus weeks, and the couple set up the Stokes Valley Medical Centre in the 1990s where daughters Susan and Vicki still work.
Tim, Mark and their sisters Susan and Vicki describe wonderful childhoods and as 14 grandchildren and a great-grandchild arrived, the Ngan Kee "Saturday family nights" - open to the extended family - were filled with laughter, talk and good food.
Just as Bill threw himself into being a family doctor, Mollie was hugely energetic in the community.
Friend and fellow JP Connie Olsen said for 10 years Mollie was a driving force in Save the Children Fund, for which she was vice-president and collections co-ordinator.
She was a patron of Stokes Valley and Taita Plunkets, a member of the Hutt Valley Community Arts Council, a member for six years of the Taita College board of governors and an enthusiastic contributor to the founding of the Stokes Valley swimming pool.
Mark Ngan Kee says people would tell her mother she should run for the city council - "So she did".
"I remember the way mum mobilised the four of us, plus dad of course . . . I think we ran along every street in Lower Hutt delivering her campaign pamphlets."
She was on the council for two terms from 1977, and was the highest polling candidate the second time she stood. She became deputy mayor in Mayor (Sir) John Kennedy-Good's administration.
Mollie was instrumental in setting up the Stokes Valley Community House in 1978, still a well-used space and the prototype for similar community houses in other parts of the city.
A member of the Wellington Hospital Board from 1983 to 1986, Mollie was a regional and district chairwoman of the Hutt Regional Community Mental Health Services, and helped establish Hillview in Lower Hutt to promote community mental health and provide a sanctuary for those needing help.
Mollie was a marriage celebrant for 12 years, and loved being part of those happy occasions.
Her hard work as foundation member and eventually vice- president of the Hutt Ethnic Council was recognised with a life membership in 2010.
Connie Olsen would sit with Mollie as JPs on Saturday morning court sessions hearing bail and remand applications. "It was a privilege to work with Mollie. Her sense of fun was contagious . . . I believe I learned patience and tolerance; she was inspirational."
Mollie became active on the JP's Hutt Valley executive council and on the phone organising people to come to events, and contribute to fundraising raffles. She was gentle "but relentless", Connie recalled.
Mollie and Bill made three family trips home to China, the second two with all the grandchildren, to give them an understanding of their ancestry.
Mark Ngan Kee said his mother "lost her rock" when Bill died in 2009, but kept up community and family activities.
He and his siblings said with their mother they were never in doubt about her standards concerning what was right and wrong, what was fair and unfair.
"But just as importantly, Mum had the ability in her calm, considered and compassionate way to apply these standards with an even hand, where a best outcome is achieved with the minimum of conflict and the maximum of agreement . . . an amazing gift."
www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/hutt-news/9033165/Mollie-Ngan-Kee-achieved-firsts-as-Hutt-community-builder
- Hutt News