Don Chapple - Waiheke

Sadly Don has passed away after over a decade of planting his own dream

Died June 2005

Waiheke Island's Johnnie Appleseed is Don Chapple who, as a volunteer, has overseen the complete restoration of the badly eroded grass hillocks and wetlands of Matiatia to create a Forest and Bird reserve containing some 40,000 plants. Don could tell you each plant's history. Many began their lives as locally-sourced seeds, carefully nurtured by him, and carried on the pannier of the bicycle upon which he traveled to work each day.

Don Chapple - In Memory Don Chapple: Sociology lecturer at University of Waikato and University of Auckland died at Easter weekend. The Gulf News ran the following obituary and picture and with the permission of the editor, Greg Treadwell, this is reproduced here. A couple of poems Don wrote are added. His Sociological work comprises his thesis and a book emerging out of this. Forest and village : work, government and community in Kaingaroa, 1970 Tokoroa : creating a community, Auckland : Longman Paul, 1976 Charles Crothers -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Obituary from The Gulf News, by Greg Treadwell. Against a background of rejuvenating forest at Te Atawhai Whenua, hundreds of people gathered to farewell a hero of the environmental movement. A mighty tree has fallen . . . A father figure, a wise counsel, a mighty conservationist – islanders gathered at Matiatia on Saturday to pay their respects to Don Chapple. Each speaker at the open ceremony had their own tribute to the 75-year-old islander who died at Easter weekend.But one theme ran through them all Don Chapple was a man who, in today¹s parlance, walked the walk. If he advocated leaving a light footprint on the planet, you could be sure his was one of the lightest. Even his casket, which sat surrounded by family on the podium, was made of cardboard. ‘He taught me to focus on what we need, not what we want’, said his elder daughter Jessica. Hers was the only household she knew where ‘leaving the tap running while you brushed your teeth was a punishable offence. Don¹s younger brother Tony told the crowd of a long, summer cycling holiday he had spent with Don in Northland when he was just 10 and Don 21. Despite taking all the luggage, then jollying his younger brother along with a few observations about birds and even towing his bike with one hand, Don was not able to quell the 10-year-old¹s constant complaints of tiredness, aching muscles and hunger. ‘He stopped eventually, got out a ground sheet, spread it under a macrocarpa tree and got out some apples. Then he proceeded to give me a very gentle, long lecture on what I could reasonably expect from life and what I couldn¹t. Don always offered support in a non-judgemental way. He was a constant in my life and I thought he was indestructible.’ Donald Leigh Chapple was born in Wellington in 1929 and educated at schools in Rotorua and, later, Pukekohe. After starting an apprenticeship in fitting and turning and despite plans to enrol at medical school, he attended Lincoln University where he completed a horticulture diploma. Later in life he would have a vast, detailed and accurate knowledge of New Zealand¹s native flora. After some farming experience and a period Tony Chapple described at Saturday’s ceremony as one of ‘extreme religious fervour’, Don eventually trained to be a teacher, a vocation that came naturally, at Ardmore Teachers’ College. There he met June Hunt (later June Bright), who was to be, some 50 years later, his partner for a year before he died. She told Saturday¹s gathering she wanted to thank ‘all the women who kept him warm for 50 years. I reckon Papatuanuku had her eye on Don from very early in the piece,’she said. In return he had had ‘a sharp green stick to wave at the great god progress’. After some teaching up north, Don ended up in forestry in Murupara where he was known for both his BSA motorbike and his habit of planting native trees in places others saw as places to dump rubbish. He later returned to study and at university met Barbara Kingdon. They married in January, 1961 and had four children: Jessica, Peter, Donna andMax. After further periods of teaching in small towns, he became a lecturer in sociology at Waikato University. There he was known for many things, including his run-ins with university authorities over dress standards and with ‘certain science faculty members over the desirability of nuclear power generation in New Zealand’, noted Tony Chapple. By 1976 he was living on Waiheke and working as a part-time lecturer at the University of Auckland. Together Barbara and he set up and ran Putiki School, an alternative school at their home in the bush of Hekerua Valley. Former teachers and students spoke with pride and love of their school and its co-founder at Saturday¹s ceremony. A man with an enduring love and knowledge of literature, he taught his daughter Jessica ‘life without books is incomprehensible and learning never stops’. ’He also taught me gentleness and patience is the best path.’ He worked tirelessly on many conservation projects, from the glades of his own neighbourhood to the wetlands and hills all around Waiheke. As writer Janet Hunt said, Forest and Bird committee meetings won¹t be the same without a contribution from Don in a small glass jar, usually a bug or some fungus, to study during official business. The name Don Chapple became, of course, synonymous with the revegetation project on Te Atawhai Whenua Reserve. Tens of thousands of trees have been added to extensive existing manuka planting since the 16.5ha of land was gifted to Forest and Bird in 1993 by Church Bay residents Nick and Nettie Johnstone after they subdivided land at Church Bay. But there was much more he was known for on Waiheke, including work with the island¹s peace group in its early days and his urging of local government all over New Zealand to create nuclear-free zones. He was also known as a private, humble and shy person, who nevertheless always had time to talk and was to many a teacher and father figure. Former city councillor and long-time island politician Gordon Hodson knew Don Chapple for more than 30 years. ‘He always impressed me as a person of enormous integrity but also as a man of passion,’ he said. ’He also had an extraordinary objectivity when looking at what was right andwhat was wrong. And he had an immense energy to do what was right.’What you see on [the Matiatia] hillside was largely inspired by him and done by him. ‘He actually did it. We think about it and plan it but Don got out and did it. Every day.’ Island conservationist Tony King-Turner called Don Chapple the wisest person he had ever met and someone who ‘lived the dream’. He quoted Henry David Thoreau: ‘man is rich in relation to the things he can leave alone. ‘I thought that summed up Don very well,’ he said. Island Forest and Bird chair Petra White said she had served for 15 years on the committee. ’If a great tree falls, there must be small trees coming up to replace it,’she said.. Auckland Regional Council chair and long-time island politician and environmentalist Mike Lee called him an ‘erudite citizen’ and recalled the ‘hard yakka’ required in 1994 to stop a drought ruining all the good work at Te Atawhai Whenua. With a gesture towards the Matiatia hills, he quoted ‘the immortal words’written in Saint Paul¹s Cathedral about the architect Christopher Wren. ‘If you seek his monument, look around you.’ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call me child Call me child when the wish waters splash down my wonderment When the wish wish waters splash a spinny- rainbow top Atop, around, about, adown a blue-sky-hurry-thistle-down so lightsome down so lightsome far above Come never down? Never? To my wonderment Don Chappell, Wellington 1957 Memento for Lyndsay There is something about a wildplace, replete with things that sprout and tumble, cling or weep There is something about a wildplace so prodigal in its casting, this way and that, of form sound and light There is something about a wildplace that seems to say "Artifice not needed here! Stay your hand But stay!" Don Chappell, Waiheke, 2002

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