Central Storage (Garry Buys), a long time supporter of BikeManawatu, has decided to end his sponsorship of the club’s weekly prize draw,
Thank you Garry for making the prize draw possible for so many years. Many of you will have benefited personally from the draw I’m sure!
Central Storage will continue supporting the club through other sponsorship avenues.
On Tuesday 6 June 2023, as the result of an accident. Aged 75 years. Dearly loved husband and best friend of Liz. Much loved father and father-in-law of Daniel and Elena (Italy), Andrew (Brisbane), and Kate and David Wilson (South Carolina). Beloved Koro of Ada, Indi, and Quinn. A loved brother, brother-in-law, and uncle. Messages to the Lithgow family may be sent c/- 167 John F Kennedy Dr, Palmerston North 4414.
In lieu of flowers a donation to St John Ambulance would be greatly appreciated.
Friends are invited to attend a service for John to be held at the Beauchamp Chapel, 167 John F Kennedy Dr, Palmerston North, on Friday, 16 June 2023 at 2.00pm. The service may be viewed online at www.beauchamp.co.nz/webcasting/bc
Colin Anderson adds:
Looking as forward as possible to a big attendance of us lot in our civvy clothes (not cycle gear), John was a keen gardener, so bright clothing Liz would appreciate as possible. Thanks to you all who have sent across photos, they have all been forwarded across to Johns son Andrew for his use. Cheers Wal.
John was my friend, coffee drinking companion, walking companion, occasional cycling companion, but most of all he was just a good person.
We met through cycling at the Manawatu Masters and then Bike Manawatu Sunday rides. We lived close by each other so we would often pass each other on the way to the rides. He seemed to be a competent rider and willing to help others. He didn’t hide at the back of the bunch. Then I became aware of his ability – trying to complete 70 100km rides in the year before he turned 70 (and succeeding), 2 laps around Taupo. Most of you will know John and his cycling ability so I don’t intend to cover that part of his life. He enjoyed cycling but it wasn’t the main aspect of his life.
John had a medical incident whilst riding on the cycleway out to Linton which resulted in him getting a Pacemaker fitted. This was about a year after I had an ICD fitted following a Cardiac Arrest. We seemed to form a bond discussing our experiences with our devices and how they affected us. John complained about a degree of uncomfortableness with his device but was interested in its workings and was very proud when he found out that it was only being required to work for a small percentage of the time.
John was an early bird. When he got his dog Merlot they would be out walking before dawn and would often walk past the Bees Knees Café where I was enjoying a post ride coffee. Before long I convinced him to stop and have a coffee which then turned into a routine. We would meet, enjoy a coffee, compare photos of the sunrise and solve some of the world’s problems. As Merlot was with John we would sit outside the café; we were perfectly positioned to score the parking of anyone daring to park in front of us. He was a hard marker, and it is fair to say that not many were able to get full marks. Quite a few didn’t even make it into the positive side of the ledger. Merlot eventually got his own chair at the café where he could sit and look inside to ensure that he was going to get a treat. John was aware enough to bring a towel so that Merlot wouldn’t be sitting directly on the chair.
I had started walking regularly after my CA and would often meet him and Merlot wandering the streets or the Bridle Track on the way to coffee. John was quite a conversationalist and many times I would be late getting home in time to go to work. My wife said she knew when I was about to get home as she could hear John talking as we neared my house.
John seemed to know lots of people. I first thought it was because he had lived in Palmy for so long, but then I saw how friendly he was, and the interest he took in other people. When we were out walking, we would be regularly stopping and talking to other people, other dog walkers, little old ladies pushing walkers, other early morning exercisers. John could tell you many things about each of these people. It became obvious that John just liked people and took genuine interest in them. After my ICD activated and I didn’t appear on Strava for a few days John noticed and came around to our house wanting to know if I was ok. He would comment on my activities and would interact with his Strava followers around the world.
John was a family man and was extremely proud of each of his children and would regularly keep me up to date with what each was doing. Like them I am going to miss him.
RIP John
It is very hard to write a Dear John letter, especially for someone you have known for so long
and have nothing but admiration for.
John was certainly a family man, myself and I am sure all club members would like to go out to Liz, Daniel, Kate, and Andrew with our heartfelt condolences. John was extremely proud of all his children and their journeys in life, the apple of his eye was certainly his granddaughter, Indie, as he could not talk about her enough.
My personal first experience with John was about 35 years ago when John and his son Daniel presented at Pedal Pushers asking about our then Sunday rides which predates the present Masters club. Daniel was in his very early teens and I welcomed him into our Sunday rides. At the time they were living out at Opiki and John would drive him into town, so as he had nothing to do we got him to drive our support vehicle for the ride.
Daniel grew quickly in the local cycling community, the Palmerston North Cycling Club, John’s commitment spread to him being on the club committee for many years and a period I recall as club president, but he certainly assisted in running many of the local cycling events.
While living at Opiki, John worked as a farm hand growing potatoes and prior to this he had been for a long period a green keeper at a golf course. Over the years whenever I had a problem with my lawn John was only too willing to give advice. During his time in potato farming to earn extra money to fund his son’s growing obsession with cycling we sold 20kg bags of potatoes in the doorway of the shop for $5 per bag, it went gangbusters and was always plenty of money for Daniels hardware.
Having many family dinners together one night John said it was time to get off the tractor. I said how about becoming a Postie. A week later John approached me if that was a possibility. With my then contact at NZ Post I put John’s name forward and within the month he was Postman-Pat. By now he had shifted into Palmerston North and taken up road cycling. With the evolving masters cycling fraternity became a very committed and well liked member. It is at about this stage that most of you would have met and come to know John. In recent times John has worked with me at Central Storage assisting with upkeep and maintenance being my right hand man. I
personally have so many fond memories of time with John and his family which are too large to share. But over the last days personally all of those memories have flooded back, which I am sure you are all experiencing.
For you riders who were fortunate enough to meet with John and his dog last Sunday, who he absolutely adored and religiously walked every morning and will be missing him dearly, as we all well, will you treasure that moment.
Farewell my good friend, Rest in Peace
Garry Buys
P.S. as a tribute to John and his Dog, I would ask you to watch a movie, which I believe is
available on Netflix “ Hachi” A Dogs Tale by Richard Gere – based on a true story