[aap1966]

Yeah, indulge me here.....

76. stroke 4 months ago, pretty disabling, another stroke Saturday, never regained consciousness.

He was a Permanent Head of Dept, he ran the government department at State level for years while the politicians of all sides came and went.
One of his proudest work moments was an overheard conversation. Some lobbyists were pushing for a certain decision, and one asked the other whether Dad could be bought. The other replied along the lines of "that guy?, he'd have you arrested for even dropping a hint".

He retired from administering 124,000 square miles of leasehold agricultural land, did a year or 2 of consulting, then ran a centre for street people in Sydney's red light district until 4 months ago. He organised food, legal and medical & pysch help for the homeless, the druggies and the street walkers. Not from an office, he worked the counter and did the admin stuff after hours. He was spat on and threatened regularly and thumped a couple of times, but went back each day. Why? Christianity. But he never preached, to anyone. Closest he came was one day one homeless druggie said to Dad "I suppose you're going to tell me I'm going to Hell?" Dad said, "You sure you aren't there already? What've you got to lose?"

He went from dealing with the Premier (the Australian name for state governor) to dealing with drug addled HIV positive street walkers, and thought both worthy of equal respect.

He was a good guy, who did a lot of "below the radar" good. I'll miss him.