Sir Tim Shadbolt turned around Invercargill's slide - former council CEO

Comedian Gary McCormick, a lifelong friend of Sir Tim Shadbolt, says the mayor was fearless but armed with "a landmark smile and laugh" that won people over.

The former Invercargill and Waitematā mayor, who was also an activist and student radical, died on Thursday at the age of 78.

McCormick told Summer Times it was a sad day for New Zealand.

He said he was sitting looking at photos of Sir Tim who did some 60 shows with McCormick around the country.

"He had that landmark smile and laugh. It was impossible for him to be depressed, whether he was in jail, arrested by the police or undergoing the rigours of a council meeting."

McCormick said Sir Tim had a rare gift for leadership.

"He led by example, he was charismatic and he cut through the nonsense," he told RNZ. It was a style befitting a man who had been in trouble as a student for using the word "bullshit".

"There was no bullshit about him. He had a strange kind of fearlessness. He was not awed by people in high positions, whether that was police or anyone else. In jail, everyone liked him."

McCormick met Sir Tim at a protest in front of Parliament when both were arrested by police in the mid-1970s.

"I was the first into the paddy wagon. My parents were deeply shocked, watching on TV at home in Titahi Bay. Tim was next in. We spent the day in the cells and became friends. We were eventually let go by a wise magistrate who thought if you can't protest at Parliament, where can you protest."

'One of the great characters of his generation'

Sir Tim was one of the "characters of his generation", former prime minister Helen Clark says.

Speaking to RNZ, she said Shadbolt would have a go at anything and do it fearlessly and in good humour.

"I think we miss some of the characters now in politics, that humour - it has all got a bit more pedestrian."

Clark remembered Sir Tim from his days as a student activist on the Auckand University campus in the late 1960s. He had formed a political party calling itself the Auckland University Society for the Active Prevention of Cruelty to Politically Apathetic Humans - or AUSA POCPAH

"They used to dress in big capes, looking like the Wizard of Christchurch, and he had an alsatian dog.

"You could never forget him, with his look and capes and dog.

"He was a very good humoured guy who did crazy things."

Clark said he would take on any cause or role fearlessly.

"When he stood for the mayoralty of Waitakere council, I think a lot of people were probably aghast. But he formed 'Tim's Team' and it did very well for a while.

"And while his last years at Invercargill may not have been great for him, he always had the courage to give things a go. He was one of the great characters of his generation."

Huge influence on Southland's fortunes

The former chief executive of Invercargill City Council says Sir Tim Shadbolt was central to efforts to turn around the city's fortunes.

Richard King met Sir Tim at a rally in his student activist days, and later worked with him for more than 20 years.

He told Morning Report Invercargill was once the fastest-declining city in Australasia, but Sir Tim helped attract jobs and people, in part by championing free tertiary fees.

"That had a huge boost to the city. You had more students spending money, you had people coming like outside investors, buying up houses so they could rent them to the students, and many students decided to stay," he said.

Sir Tim loved people and was the kind of man who would "give you the shirt off his back."

He could connect with anyone within minutes, King said.

"He was the sort of person [who] he could walk into a room without knowing anybody - and five minutes later, 95 percent of them were eating out of his hand," he said.

"When he came to Invercargill, people really rallied around and supported him big time."

Although political opposition later took its toll, Sir Tim had a good run, King said.

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