A good sport and lively raconteur

Larry Macer was a stalwart of Oriental Rongotai Football Club for about 60 years - a player, supporter, referee, organiser, fundraiser and life member - the sort of character who helps keep so many clubs going.

Born in Timaru, he was the youngest of 11 children in his family and he was 15 when his father died in a bridge-building accident in South Canterbury.

The teenage Larry moved to Wellington to live with his married sister, but he did not stay long.

A sense of adventure prompted him to sign up as a seaman, and he worked as a stoker on coasters and ships plying the Tasman.

After the outbreak of World War II, he joined the British Merchant Marine, and his 21st birthday was celebrated on one of the hazardous Arctic convoys to the northern Russian port of Murmansk.

He was on one of the fleet of merchant ships carrying provisions in support of the Allied D-Day landings on the coast of France in 1944.

After marrying and living in Wales, he came to Wellington soon after the end of the war and bought the family home in Bowes Cres, Strathmore Park, where he lived for the rest of his life.

The marriage ended in divorce after about 12 years. Friends described him as a bit of a lad, whose paramount interest was always sport. Nevertheless, he was a caring father and always enjoyed encouraging younger people to enjoy their sport.

Mr Macer joined the Oriental Rongotai club, when it was based in Hataitai and played in the junior first division, which won its competition.

He was a front-row forward and had the broken nose and damaged ears to show he had served his time in the rucks and scrums.

His first job back in Wellington after the war was at the Tramways workshops at Kilbirnie, and he later worked as a storeman at the Bonds Hosiery factory in Newtown.

It was a position that helped him ensure his teams were always immaculately turned out with good jerseys and socks and there were also packets of pantyhose - factory seconds, of course - with which clubmates were supplied to keep their wives and girlfriends happy.

Mr Macer was also a keen cricketer. He helped form the club's cricket team and played as a wicketkeeper in teams that played in the mercantile league and the Wellington Cricket Association competitions.

He kept playing as long as he could, and he was a life member of the Collegiate Club.

Friends remember him as a great storyteller.

Always active, he only slowed down a bit in later years, when he needed a walker to help him get around.

As he became more housebound, he would keep himself occupied at home as a self-appointed guardian of the Wellington Harbour entrance.

The Bowes Cres home, high above the southern tip of the Miramar Peninsula, had spectacular views over the main shipping channel, and with a shipping log and a set of binoculars, he would keep a lookout and tick off the big ships coming and going from the harbour.

Lawrence Desmond Macer:

b  Timaru, February 11, 1922; m  Doreen Lewis 1942 (div), 1s 1d;  d Wellington, October 8, 2009,  aged 87.

* Sources: Don Bond, David Walsh, Gerry Paris and Pam Boorman.

A Life Story tells of a New  Zealander who, like most out of  the limelight, helped to shape  the community by simply living  a life. If you know someone  whose life story should be told,  email  obituaries@dompost.co.nz