News of Rob Feisst’s inclusion in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours was met with applause at his Cambridge Town Hall farewell last week.
The announcement was made by Taupō MP Louise Upston, who said special permission had been given to award the King’s Birthday Medal before the official date of June 3. That meant that Rob knew about the award, given for his service to community, before he died on May 21.
Rob Feisst
The citation noted his involvement with community organisations.
It was fitting for this farewell to take place at the Town Hall as he had played an active role in the building’s maintenance and restoration. He was one of the seven founding trustees of the Cambridge Town Hall Community Trust, going on to become its deputy chairman.
Waipā deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk said even in his last days Rob was busy checking submissions on plans for the hall’s restoration. She said Cambridge had lost one of its biggest supporters and advocates, a man with unwavering commitment to bring change, a community stalwart in every sense of the word.
In charge: Cambridge Town Hall Community Trust chair Kirsty Johnson, right, and deputy chair Rob Feisst on the Town Hall piazza. Photo: Roy Pilott
“His passion was infectious… he stood up and took on leadership roles and had a unique ability to rally people,” she said.
The News’ columnist Peter Nicholl delivered a eulogy replete with antidotes about the carefree youth both he and Rob enjoyed in the Fencourt Road area where they tumbled as boys.
Rob was born in Penmarric House in wartime Cambridge, the eldest of four children – Rob, Mary, Christine and John – born to Mary and Albert Feisst. They grew up on the Flume Rd family farm that had been settled by Feissts in the early 1900s. It was, said Peter, something of a family enclave, with uncles, aunts and cousins all around.
Cambridge Health and Community trustees Rob Feisst and Peter Nicholl browse through maternity home history with the centre’s manager Lisa Lindsay.
Rob went to Goodwood Primary, Cambridge Intermediate (where he and Peter first met), and Cambridge High schools, after which he started working on the family farm. He quickly became involved in the local Young Farmer’s Club and in Federated Farmers, winning a regional competition that netted him a trip to Australia.
He met his future wife Val at a nurses’ ball in Hamilton and the pair married in Pahiatua in 1966 – with Peter as their best man.
The couple raised their own family – Sonya, Julie, Fiona and Andrew – on the family farm in Flume Rd. His children said their father had imbued them with a strong work ethic and a deep love of reading. He always found time to support them in their sporting and other endeavours and was actively involved in this children’s and grandchildren’s lives.
Rob’s community activities set him apart from his peers. Peter said: “There were so many over his lifetime that a list of them would fill an encyclopaedia”.
From a young age he was actively engaged in Young Farmers’ Clubs, Federated Farmers’ and the Cambridge Racquets Club – his involvement in the latter straddled 40 years and covered periods when he was chairman and president. While at the club he oversaw a major renovation.
Mayor Jim Mylchreest, left, with Cambridge Town Hall Community Trust’s Rob Feisst at the Chamber of Commerce Long Lunch
In 1974 Rob started Summit Grains, then situated in the old rail yards where Lakewood now sits, with the late John Hewitt and Winston Steen.
Rob’s citation spoke to his tenure as a trustee of the Cambridge Health and Community Trust from 1996 almost to the present, which included its transformation to what is now the Taylor Made Community Space. It also mentioned his ties to the Cambridge Community Board from 1992 to 2010, with 12 years as chair, and his more recent involvement with the Cambridge Town Hall Trust.
He was also central in establishing the Cambridge Information Centre and the Armistice in Cambridge event, one set to mark its 24th anniversary this year.
Some of the original Information Centre board members who attended the 20th anniversary of
Destination Cambridge. They are, from left, Rob Feisst, Rosemary Hill, Win Bills and Kevin Burgess
