Norman HALSTEAD Obituary

We met Norman and Margaret on the 'Southern Cross' in 1969,as we headed for New Zealand and new lives. There had been two Science teaching positions offered: Norman had chosen Dannevirke and Barry had chosen Inglewood.
We enjoyed the voyage; we found we had a lot in common, and we triumphed twice in the weekly table quiz!
We kept in touch for many years (we still have the ficus they gave us when they visited 50 years ago) but sadly we started to lose our usual Christmas communications after Margaret passed away.
We are so glad Norman had a fulfilling career and a busy retirement, and we send our condolences to the Beard family in England and to the school which so valued his many talents .

I was sorry to read about Norman on the Internet. Norman's wife Margaret was my second cousin but I only got to know them in the 1990s when I was researching my family history and Norman was researching the same families for Margaret. We kept in contact via email. After Margaret died he came twice on visits to England and we found him very good company with plenty of interesting things to talk about. Sometime later I was wakened by the phone ringing at 7am. It was Norman calling from NZ - he had miscalculated the time difference between the UK & NZ. However it was good to have a chat with him.

Mr Halstead was our Deputy Principal at TGHS and while he seemed quite formidable to us as 3rd formers, as we went through the years at school we could see his kindness and love of education. I enjoyed him taking our senior choir and his incredible patience with us all. We enjoyed a giggle when he conducted us singing The Rainbow Connection' while wearing a green suit - we weren't sure if it was a deliberate reference or not. He was part of a great leadership team at TGHS with Mrs Wilson & Mrs Stockwell, the passing of an era.