Dad would have been 96 today. His old PA Mary from Papua New Guinea (PNG) who is quoted in the book remembered him on Facebook. He was always very proud to share his special day with UN Day and often had a joint party. This is what Mary said in her own words:
Happy BD to our good friend, late "Tom Unwin" Your birthday falls on UN Day TODAY! we used to celebrate every year when you were RR [Resident Rperesnetative] in PNG (longest serving RR). Real pleasure working with you all them years. You have to be the "Boss of the year" because every staff member were your family, you treat them fairly from top to drivers & cleaners & they loved you so much with a lot of respect. You always resolve staff issues when it comes about. A great boss, who works from 6am till late. My taubada [husband] used to work at Investment Haus & often drove past the office & could see your famous Holden car early dawn. A real working Boss who traveled within PNG to visit all your UN Colleagues in rural areas to see how their projects were progressing & dressed in your favourite safari karki [khaki] gear with a smoking pipe! A man of real action really. I remembered your closest associates of great minds in the Govt of PNG them days, the likes of Ugava, Olewale, Siaguru, so many other great minds. One of the funny things that stood out,Tom Unwin was [RR] when the big boss of Unesco visited PNG. Naturally the drivers do the driving or pick up etc. No, you went yourself in your UN car & picked up the Unesco Boss straight from the balus [plane]! I dont think the big bosses in NY were happy as the telex messages showed in the coming weeks. But that was hillarious to me! Another one of my favorites was when you were not satisfied with PNG participants travel arrangements not approved ASAP by NY or their per diems to be paid before they depart for their courses. The next message we received from NY was a cartoon of a plane, with a participant hanging on! You finally got them settled ASAP & they were on board overseas satisfied.
Thank you Mary! Dad had so many good qualities when caring for his UN family ....didn't necessarily extend to his own as you will discover when you read my book!
This photo was taken in his PNG days - just as Mary remembers him.
PS copies still expected before xmas - you will hear from Unbound to check on your latest address.