Peter Broadhead
“Strange fits of passion I have known”
Shakespeare
Born: “Cairnbrae”, Wanganui, 7 July 1938. Lived at 81 Smithfield Road.
Father, Moston, Watchmaker and Jeweller. Mother, Winifred.
Sister, McKenzie (’42) – Pukerua Bay
Brother, Alan (’45) – Tauranga
Sister, Allison Macleay (’46) – Turakina Valley
Schooling: Tawhero Primary, 1944-49
Wanganui Intermediate, 1950-51
WTC, 1952-56
My first year at Victoria was not entirely successful from an academic viewpoint as I managed to fail both Maths and Chemistry, but passed Physics and Science French! However, I enjoyed life at Fielden-Taylor hostel with room-mate Graeme Kennedy and the year gave me time to realise that I needed to do engineering rather than science. The following year, sans Bursary, I boarded in Sumner with Bob and Brian and completed engineering intermediate. Then followed a year boarding with Brian and two years sharing a house, first with Bob and then with Greg. Although initially I intended to do mechanical engineering, electrical also appealed and I decided to do that first. However, late in my final year the electrical prof. suggested that I apply for one of the Graduate Fellowships which were on offer from several British electrical companies.
The thought of a free trip to the U.K. won over a further year at uni and accordingly in March 1962 I set sail in the vessel “Rangitoto” for the U.K. – what a great experience that was! AEI (now part of GEC) was based in Rugby but during the course of the 2-year fellowship I was transferred to factories and building sites in various parts of the country and consequently saw quite a lot of the British Isles as well as gaining valuable practical engineering experience. At the end of the 2 year period I extended my stay for several further months at the Dungeness Nuclear Power Station. For a young man, this period was great experience and I found the British scene most attractive.
On my return to N.Z in mid-1964, I worked for Philips in Wellington on electronic design but within a year had moved to Kawerau, where I became an electrical engineer at Tasman Pulp and Paper. Although Kawerau was a small mill town I enjoyed the company of fellow Tasman people at the Tasman Staff Hostel, spent many weekends in Wanganui or Auckland and, in one of the most enjoyable periods of my life, learnt to fly with the local aero club. However, the lure of the wider world became too much to resist and I decided that Canada was where I should be, so in early 1967 I once again set sail for Britain, where I intended to catch up with friends and perhaps work for a while.
Although there were still good jobs available and I attended several interviews, job offers were slow in coming and I was finally saved from a job as a relief teacher by an offer from ICT, the British equivalent of IBM, to do some computer system programming, based in Putney, London. During this time I met Jenny Willis, who was teaching French at a local girls’ school, and we married late in 1967. We also bought a Lotus Elan+2, one of the nicer cars I have owned.
I had not forgotten my original plan to go to Canada and after a year flatting in West London, we flew to New Brunswick, collected the Lotus which had preceded us and drove to Sarnia, Ontario, where we stayed with ex-Cambridge friends of Jenny before renting an apartment. Jenny found the Canadian summer very warm in the apartment, while I enjoyed the air-conditioning at my desk at Dow Chemical (once again an electrical engineer), so the following year she found a job teaching French at one of the local secondary schools. Towards the end of the school year she found herself pregnant, and our son Thomas was born in November 1970.
We decided to return to N.Z. early the following year, initially for a look, as I was keen to remain in Canada, but Jenny found the N.Z. scene much more acceptable for women. After less than a year working in Auckland with a firm of consulting engineers, I needed a more challenging job and accepted a job as electrical engineer at the Bluff aluminium smelter.
While the Invercargill weather was not too wonderful, the people were pleasant and friendly, there were plenty of activities available for the family and the southern lakes were close. Our daughter Lucy was born in December 1972. At about this time the smelter decided to expand and I joined the expansion project team.
When the expansion project was complete, I was transferred to the Plant Engineering department as Senior Electrical Project Engineer, then Senior Mechanical Project Engineer (thus finally realising my original intention back in 1958) and in 1980 took over the role of Plant Engineer. At about this time we decided on a new house and I had a bit of fun designing and then supervising its construction.
By 1987 the company politics had become wearying and the company decided to restructure, so when a favourable retrenchment deal became available I applied and was accepted. I then began working as an independent consulting engineer in the Invercargill area. By then, Jenny had resumed teaching French at Verdon College and shortly thereafter became AP. Fortunately the retrenchment deal included my superannuation contributions and these helped purchase a small house in Queenstown, which became a pleasant retreat during many weekends, even if there was a bit much gardening for me.
In 1995, we decided that, with the children no longer at home, we wanted to live closer to family in the North Island but still on the better island, so we moved to Nelson and bought an unfinished house on 20 acres. My first job was to build a garage large enough for our several cars, with an office above, and I found this to be a very agreeable task. Sadly it came to an end and I have since been working as a consulting engineer, mostly in the timber industry.
Meanwhile, Jenny returned to the classroom, became Head of Languages at Waimea College, retired early this year and now enjoys quilting in addition to her long-standing addiction to the garden. In fact, we both spend quite a lot of time maintaining our property but we also enjoy classical concerts and I manage to find a bit of time now and again for poor piano-playing and a newly-developed interest in the electronics of model railways.