With his wealth of Olympic experience and vast local and international connections, Ralph Roberts MBE was a major influence on Auckland’s North Shore and across the sporting world. Sharing ideas and knowledge he’d acquired from overseas, he offered a wide lens perspective to local matters, laying the foundations for many organisations and inspiring others to ‘dream big’.
“My background was obviously in sport and that was where my expertise lay. I enjoyed sharing ideas and bringing back what I’d seen and learned; what was working well overseas," he said. "I think sometimes people thought my ideas were ‘a bit leftfield’ but it’s important to look at things with a wide vision.”
The three-time Olympic sailor in the 1960, ‘64 and ‘68 Games, New Zealand team manager in Los Angeles 1984, Olympic Judge, Paralympic Judge and Chef de Mission in Barcelona 1992, Ralph was widely regarded as a leader in international sport. His visionary voice was heard around the world and locally, in the creation of Sport North Harbour and its regional remit, his incomparable input into sailing and involvement in countless sporting and community organisations. Among these, Ralph founded the Waterwise programme, helped establish the boundaries of the North Harbour Club to support aspiring young locals, and brought various sailing classes – plus windsurfing – to New Zealand.
A devoted family man as a father of six and adoring husband to Penny, a strong sense of belonging and a service to supporting others were integral to who Ralph was. Long-running Takapuna family business, Roberts Electrical, was also a major part of his life. Even at work, play was never far away for Ralph, however. His eyes sparkled when he expressed the importance of having fun – and dreaming big.
To illustrate his values, Ralph shared Takapuna Boating Club’s motto: ‘To strive mightily and to eat and drink as friends.’ These words, he felt, aligned perfectly with life itself.
Counting Sir Peter Blake and Sir Russell Coutts among his protégés, the North Harbour Business Hall of Fame Laureate, who has a Takapuna Grammar School building named in his honour to add to his MBE and Olympic glory, as well as being past President of Yachting NZ, Commodore of Takapuna Boating Club and President of Takapuna Business Association, and friend to royalty, Ralph won not only the respect and admiration of a region but a nation, and beyond.
“I’m just a boy from Takapuna, who dreamed big,” he said.
Ralph Roberts – a man who achieved greatness worthy of his regal regard, not just for his astounding achievements but for his manner and his ways; he was known by many as ‘King Ralph’ in sailing circles around the world and back home in his beloved Takapuna. Sail on, Ralph.
Ralph Hamilton Roberts MBE
26 September 1935 – 19 March 2023
Obituary and main photo by Heather Barker Vermeer
