Dear readers,
It is with profound sadness that we share this news.
Our Trust Chair, founding Trustee and sponsor, Nigel Babbage, died on Sunday aged just 60, after a short illness.
A service to celebrate Nigel's life will be held at 11am next Wednesday, 30th November, at Riccarton Racecourse. Access to Riccarton Park is via The Show Gate.
The obituary notice in the Herald is here and a full obituary will be shared in due course.
Nigel had a passion for protecting rare native birds, not only founding our Trust, but also the Mohua Charitable Trust, naming his business after the tiny yellow bird (Mohua Investments Ltd), and was a Trustee and Vice Chairperson of the New Zealand Conservation Trust.
Nigel spoke to the University of Otago Business School in April 2019 - you can read about his talk and his financial background in this university news piece.
The hole he leaves in the lives of his family, friends and all who knew him is enormous. Nigel was a larger than life character, modest, generous, dedicated, hard-working, funny, supportive; he kept us going, he kept us focussed, motivated and often entertained.
Thank you to Rhys Buckingham, also a founding trustee, for these words: "We are so devastated about Nigel passing away - we are lost for words and in a kind of numb vacuum of the heart."
Inger Perkins
Manager, South Island Kōkako Charitable Trust