Whitford Brown
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Whitford Brown CBE |
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Whitford Brown. Photograph from a family collection.
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| 1st Mayor of Porirua | |
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In office 1962–1983 |
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| Succeeded by | John Burke |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Whitford James Richard Brown 13 May 1910 Greymouth, New Zealand |
| Died | 14 April 1986 (aged 75) Porirua, New Zealand |
| Spouse(s) | Frances Ward |
Whitford James Richard Brown CBE (13 May 1910 – 14 April 1986) was the foundation mayor of Porirua City, a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand, for 21 years from 1962 to 1983. Previously, Porirua was part of what was then called the Makara County Council. In 1961, the Local Government Commission deemed that Porirua should become a borough. The region had its first elections in October 1962, and, Brown was elected mayor.
Whitford James Richard Brown was born at Maori Creek near Greymouth in the South Island on 13 May 1910. He moved to Wanganui as a teenager, then transferred from the New Zealand Public Works Department to the New Zealand Railways Department at Wanganui, where he worked as a civil engineer until shifting to Porirua East in Christmas 1954 to work in the New Zealand Railways head office in Wellington.
After his marriage to Frances Ward, daughter of New Zealand astronomer Joseph Thomas Ward, Brown and his family settled in Porirua East. Their 4 Martin Street home was one of many in the Government's state housing scheme but, at this time, there were relatively few houses at all in the area and remote from shops and other facilities.
He first stood for the then Makara County Council in 1959, and although he was unsuccessful, was elected at a by-election the following year.
Two years later, when Porirua was constituted a borough, Brown was elected mayor. His first official function was to open the Mungavin Avenue Community Hall in Porirua East. His first concern as mayor was to obtain industrial land and the then Prime Minister of New Zealand Keith Holyoake proved most helpful, becoming one of Brown's closest friends.
The new borough negotiated with the government to free land where the Todd Motors car assembly plant was built in 1975, and Broken Hill was also zoned industrial use. Other major industries were also established as well as a modern shopping centre where there once had been empty space. "It was like being the midwife at the birth of a new community," Brown once said.
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