Obituary: calming presence in tough times

GRAEME STILL 
Fireman

When Graeme Still walked up to a fire, his first words to panicked people were "go make me a cup of tea".

Mr Still filled a number of different roles in different people’s lives, but many knew him as one of the country’s foremost firefighters.

His wife, Gayle Still, says when someone dies, you do not just lose the person, you lose a library — that could not be more true when it came to losing a Graeme Still.

Mr Still was born on November 4, 1960, in Halfway Bush to George and Joyce Still.

"He grew up in a large household with nine siblings, who by his own admission they were a handful," Ms Still said.

Mr Still loved the outdoors and hunting so much he had his own hunting dogs by the time he was a young teen. While attending Otago Boys’ High School, in lieu of doing a school scheduled "work experience week" at a local business, he took to the hills and sold the animals he killed.

"He made more money than most other students that week and one of his teachers was so curious he asked to accompany him one weekend, and went on to love the experience."

At one point, a young Mr Still was told that he should have a trade behind him, to fall back on should he need it, and with this in mind he started a panelbeating apprenticeship. While ultimately this was not for him, he did complete his qualification.

Before any of his firefighting exploits, Mr Still worked a silviculture business (that he later came to own) where he ran a team to plant and maintain trees in forestry blocks.

Mr Still took a job to plant a block that was in rough condition and covered in rank grass. He lit it up (on purpose), and it all went up in flames.

"Graeme was careful and the boys had the gear with them and it was pretty much all finished and almost out when a red truck went screaming up the road to them."

Next, a man got out of the car and asked Mr Still in a rough as guts voice "you got a permit for that?".

When Mr Still replied "no", he was told that the fire was going to be put out then.

"This didn’t worry him as he replied ‘go ahead — it’s pretty much out anyway’."

The man was Ross Hamilton, then the principal rural fire officer. After this event he tried to recruit Mr Still and his team into the rural fire business after he conceded they actually "did a pretty good job of it".

"Ross said to Graeme that if he bought his forestry boys to do some rural fire training, ‘we’ll forget all about this’."

It took some convincing, as Mr Still was not overly receptive at first, but eventually he said "eh, all right," and a lifelong friendship between the two started, with Mr Still eventually becoming Mr Hamilton’s deputy, Ms Still said.

Later on in his career, Mr Still became known as the "go-to guy" for anything to do with wildfires.

"He was always one that if he wanted to do something, he would do it."

Mr Still was the deputy rural fire officer with the Dunedin City Council, before moving to become the principal rural fire officer at the council.

Later, when rural fire was taken out of the council, he played a substantial role in the formation of the Otago Rural Fire Authority (ORFA).

Then when the amalgamation with Fenz began, after a bit of a restructure he became the national wildfire specialist, and was one of only two level-three fire investigators in New Zealand.

"He was supposed to be away this month training up more fire investigators — things change, don’t they?" Ms Still said.

"When starting out with rural firefighting he was always quick to respond to a fire. When that pager went he would drop everything and be off — it was a standing joke that he could never get through a holiday without disappearing at some stage."

When ORFA formed, he had slightly more of a supervisory role. While still highly active at fire sites, he also led plenty of training and got into fire investigation.

He was an outdoors man who could not bear to sit still inside for any long stretches of time, Ms Still said.

"Graeme would have to spend two days a month doing payroll and admin for our silviculture business because he could only sit inside for an hour or two if you were lucky ... what took two days should have taken a morning."

Lake Ōhau was Mr Still’s last big job, and it was one that weighed heavily on him, she said.

"That took a toll on him really, he hated losing anything . . . it was devastating for him, but that is why he fronted up to media every day."

Losing any piece of infrastructure was a big thing to Mr Still, and losing those homes was tough.

On October 4, 2020, Mr Still drove from Dunedin to Lake Ōhau, and he soon fronted to media in the midst of the absolute chaos.

The massive blaze brought him to national attention and took firefighters nine days to extinguish the fire. At the peak of the effort there were 11 helicopters and more than 100 people deployed to fight it.

"Graeme would go to a fire and he just knew what to do . . . He was good like that and he really cared about what he did.

"The people in Lake Ōhau really appreciated him."

After Mr Still’s death, the Lake Ōhau community came together and wrote a tribute piece to him, which said "fate weaved Graeme deep into the lives of our Ōhau community".

"The mere mention of the name Graeme Still could subdue anxieties as would a cascade of reassurances — Graeme was more than a friend to this community, he watched over us as a family and shared our burden."

Mr and Ms Still were together for 35 years before they got married on the shore of Lake Wānaka on February 12, 2023.

The pair went to Gibbston Valley every year and always stopped for mini golf on the way home.

One year the couple had "nothing in particular" they wanted to do while in Wānaka, so Ms Still threw out the idea of getting married.

To her surprise, Mr Still was all for it.

"We go up on a Friday, stopped for lunch in Clyde, got to Wānaka and did what we wanted to do ... in 2023 there was nothing we particularly wanted to do, so we got married."

The pair got hitched at 11am, stopped for some brunch afterward, then went treasure hunting at the local dump.

"The tip shop in Wānaka is great — lots of gems up there — we just thought ‘what should we get up to now?’ and we decided that was what we wanted to do.

"We were quite happy in just our own company . . . it’s funny, we did everything together, he could be thinking something and I would say it out loud."

In their many years together, the Stills welcomed two daughters named Kelly and Jardena.

Growing up, the girls could get their dad into any predicament, Ms Still said.

"They could talk him into anything, it was crazy."

When the family would go on ski trips, the girls could convince their dad to whizz down any slope of any difficulty with some careful goading.

"All they needed to do was say ‘aw come on, are you chicken?’ and that was met with a stubborn ‘no’ by Graeme, and he would follow them down — it’s a wonder how he didn’t end up with any broken legs."

Mr Still had plans to retire in early 2025 and travel the country with Gayle in a campervan, which had recently been fitted with a heater.

"Things change, don’t they?"

Helicopters Otago managing director Graeme Gale, a longtime friend of Mr Still described him as a "good bugger" and "a no bull.... guy".

Mr Still and the pilots at Helicopter Otago often found themselves on jobs together throughout the years, and his name was heard floating around the hangar a lot.

"We’re certainly missing him here big time — if we all went out to a job it didn’t matter what time of night it was or the fire might still going hell for leather, he always called up, said ‘good job’, and made sure we’re all doing well."

Mr Still told a good story, was a good mate and was a "good practical down-to-earth good bugger," Mr Gale said.

"Sometimes conversations with the farmers can be quite prickly or a bit negative, but he had a good way of breaking those down and actually talking — I don’t know anyone that didn’t have respect for him.

"He was a proactive guy, and he was a fun guy and always good for a laugh — a great Kiwi bloke."

Mr Gale said he remembered when health and safety started to become popular and Mr Still was issued with a helmet to wear while flying in the air.

"I remember the first day he put it on he said ‘aww mate, I don’t want to wear this, I’ll look bloody stupid’."

Mr Gale reassured him he in fact did not "look stupid" and instead looked like Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

Mr Still put the helmet on and the pair took off. Mid-flight, Mr Gale turned around and started laughing.

"Graeme said ‘I knew it, I look bloody stupid’."

Mr Gale insisted that no, he looked exactly like Tom Cruise.

"What he didn’t realise is that he had put the helmet on backwards and I was itching to get back and land on the ground so all the guys could have a laugh at him.

"There were times like that, we had fun and he was such a fun guy to work with, and he knew his stuff. That was Graeme."

Fire and Emergency NZ community readiness and recovery adviser Steve Ochsner penned a poem to Mr Still following his death.

The final stanza of the poem said:

"The plan has worked, fire succumbed — Laughter jokes, debriefs are done.

"Family waits, his homeward run — Tomorrow’s day, soon to come."

Graeme Still died on September 11, age 63. He is survived by his wife Gayle, daughters Kelly and Jardena, son-in-law Ben and "beloved" dogs Ali and Grace. — Laine Priestley