Remembered

The night after the earthquake, out checking on the state of my father's house, I started thinking about friends and acquaintances that I hadn't checked up on. I happened to be driving at the time past a street where I knew an ex-colleague lived. I hadn't seen him for some years, and the suburb was largely untouched, so I put it out of my mind.

It was some days later that I heard that Stephen Wright had started work only the month before in the CTV building, one of two relatively modern buildings that suffered total collapse in the earthquake. Officially listed at the time as 'missing', the conclusion was sadly inevitable when the TV showed pictures of a small tightly-packed pile of still-smouldering rubble.

Stephen was marketing manager at MagnumMac throughout the eight years I worked there, and only recently left to work in a similar role at CTV. In doing so he went to work again for his previously employer at MagnumMac, now part-owner and managing director of CTV, Murray Wood.

Murray was a man for whom the term 'larger than life' might have been invented. Despite a healthy personal modesty, he was a local legend in multiple communities. A lifelong musician, many years as a musical director at TVNZ, leading light in the Mac community, businessman and mentor, in recent years he returned to the TV fold as a mover and—dare I say it—shaker in local television at CTV. As the online tributes and the 1,000+ attendance at his memorial service proved, Murray was the kind of guy who was known by just about everybody.

Two of us here at Digital Fusion had the honour to work with these two men in our careers. They will be remembered, and sorely missed, by many many more.