Gordon Stuart Beissel

With love we Remember Gordon Stuart Beissel who sadly passed away on the 12th April 2013.
It gives me great pleasure to high light some of this amazing mans life. A father, husband, grand father and great grand father.
A dedicated family man who gave much of his time in service to the community.

OBITUARY

The Levin Fire Brigade station was the venue for the farewell to brigade life member Gordon Stuart Beissel. Mr Beissel died on April 12 in his 90th year.
His 10 children sat in the front row and the rest of his extended family, which included grandchildren and great­grandchildren, and his friends and
colleagues from the fire service filled the rest of the seating set out in the station.

Mr Beissel was born in 1924 in Invercargill, one of six children. He finished his schooling in Petone and went to
work as a mechanic at Odlins.
He spent two years with the Korokoro fire brigade before the war and three years with the Petone unit after,
starting out as a runner (messenger boy).
During WWII he served with the Fifth Field Engineers and volunteered for J-Force, attaining the rank of staff sergeant.

Mr Beissel and his then-girlfriend Shirley married and came to Levin in 1948. He worked fo rHudson and Burnham
and Bird's Garage and for the last 28 years of his working life was a male nurse at Kimberley Hospital.
Mr Beissel will be best remembered in Levin for his role as drum major for the Horowhenua Highland Pipe Band.
Family members spoke of watching with bated breath as he tossed the mace during many parades through
the streets of Levin.

Celebrant Alan Smith said during oneparade the fire siren went off and Mr Beissel tossed the mace to someone else, hitched up his kilt and took off for the
fire station, He was with the pipe band for 28 years and was awarded life membership.He was later persuaded to take up a similar role with Levin's
brass band, where he remained for 16 years, and this band also awarded him life membership. "He did all that without being able to read a note of music,
" Mr Smith said.Mr Beissel joined the Levin brigade in 1951, first in the fire police and then as a fireman.

In 37 years with the brigade he rose to the rank of third officer and in that time helped fight two of Levin's biggest fires — the fight two of Levin's biggest fires
the Grand Hotel, on the corner of Durham and Oxford Streets.

In his tribute fire service area commander Mitchell Brown said Mr. Beissel embodied the fire service's five core values — integrity, adaptability, skill,
values — integrity, adaptability, skill, comradeship and service to the community as a fireman but in his roles in all the organisations he was involved with in
Levin. Mr Beissel nursed his wife Shirley with love and devotion for 30 years after she had a stroke, until she died in 2003.

His last five years were spent at Te Whanau Rest Home, where he received loving support and care from the staff. Mr Beissel's son Carl, who is deputy
chief fire officer of the Levin brigade and Palmerston North area volunteer support officer, drove the brigade's 1938 Ford V8 fire engine, which carried the
casket to the Levin Avenue Cemetery for burial. Also on board were some of Mr Beissel's family and grandchildren.

Story courtesy of Horowhenua Chronicle.

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