Family reunited in graveside ceremony

Otago Daily Times

10-05-2025

A fitting tribute reunited a well-known scout leader and former Oamaru Mail worker with his departed grandfather and missing father.
The family of Oamaru-born Owen James Rodgers travelled from Wellington to bury his ashes following a short graveside committal service.
Mr Rodgers, who attended Oamaru North School and Waitaki Boys' High School, died in Wellington on December 13, 2020. Last month, his ashes were buried at Oamaru Old Cemetery in the grave of his grandfather, James Herbert Rodgers.
Speaking to the Oamaru Mail, his son, Peter, said it had been his father's wish to be returned to Oamaru, where he began his long association with the scouting movement. He was a life member of the Scout Association of New Zealand.
"He was a scout leader for a while and then he became what's called a field commissioner. So he had the whole of the South Island in his area.
"He was also executive officer publications for the Scout Association and general editor and he also edited the monthly newspaper.
"He wrote a centenary history called Scouting in New Zealand, Adventure Unlimited: Looking at 100 years of the Scout Movement in New Zealand, published in 2012. He was working on the second volume when he died."
He said his father had a long association with Oamaru and the community, being very involved with St Paul's Presbyterian Church, where he was previously a bible class leader, caretaker, manager and elder.
He also had a long career with the Oamaru Mail.
"He was really attached to the town. That's where he was born. He was involved in scouts basically all his life, because even when he retired from that full-time job in scouts, he carried on doing other things, like he was involved in the reunions for the World
Scout Jamboree of 1947, which he attended.
"I think the last time I was in Oamaru was probably nearly 20 years ago. So, it was interesting to go back and it was good to fulfil his wishes.
The burial of his father's ashes was particularly fitting, given the headstone was also a memorial for Owen's father, who disappeared without a trace after going for a walk one day when Owen was just 8.
Owen Rodgers was 90, and the son of Peter James Rodgers and Elizabeth Beryl Parlane.
He was married to Margaret Irvine Cook and is survived by three children: Peter, Andrew and Mark.