The MR2 Owner's Club of New Zealand

Life member of the club, a chap who over the years contributed to it in a mighty way as I am told, and whose love of the MR2 was hard to top - Noel Morris has passed away after a long illness.

Our thoughts go out to his wife Debbie, a lovely lady who also has given a great deal to this club.

I'm sure a lot of club folk in the Wellington area in particular and indeed throughout our country will remember Noel with a great deal of fondness for a long time to come.

I've taken the liberty of posting this video of Taz's from the run where Colin presented Debbie and Noel with their life membership certificates.



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My thoughts are with you Debbie.
I first met Noel on a run to Ngawi, organised by Quinne and Gary. Noel was always willing to answer any questions or give advise to anyone that asked. He was a great guy and an asset to the club with a lot of knowledge about our lovely cars.
I know everyone from the lower North will miss Noel very much

My heart goes out to Debbie. Noel was a good keen member and past Treasurer for many years.

I first met Debbie and Noel at the 2005 MegaRun, at the Toyota night in Dunedin. It wasn't unusual for them both to make long trips and I think if I remember correctly they were spotted in Wanaka at the airport and tapped on the shoulder (while they were stopped, of course) by a local policeman. The policeman was pretty sure he knew where the Morris's were heading and Terry (the policeman) was also a member. I believe they did a "round the south island trip" to get to Dunedin.

Other than his dedicated committee work, I will remember Noel for giving me a ride around the Taupo track, as a passenger, on the occasion of the Taupo MegaRun. That was fun.

Thanks Noel for the memories.

RIP Noel, only met him a few times but he was a great bloke, awesome to chat too. My thoughts go out to Debbie and his family. Thanks for all the effort you put in Noel!!

I meet Noel in 2003 on my first run with the club as he was the Wellington region area coordinator at the time. So long ago I barely remember it, I think my car was the first gen 5 he had seen and took an interest in it even though he was a huge fan of the AW11.
In 2005 I moved region and didn't return until 2011 so unfortunately I didn't see all that much of him over the decade.
I remember him as always being a great character and could get along with him well.
He will be missed.

Ya this is pretty darn sad, He has been sick for a long time. I am assuming he continued to smoke because he was well past the point where stopping would have done any good.........poor guy.

I remember the old days of Noel, Keith, me , Colin Russki, Gary Stirling at Manfield at least once a month doing something on the track, We used to all come back home together and always stopped at Murphys Law in Waikanae before heading our separate ways.............the good old days.

A couple of years about at his place for a BBQ he said to me, "hey you are a real Kiwi now" I said "aye?" he said " you are not a yank anymore because you dont talk so darn loud anymore" (me being born in the USA)

we both got a big laugh out of that and shook hands, great moment I wont forget any time soon. The are a lot more good moments, I am going to miss that guy, he goes in the same category as Ron Scanlan, another great guy gone before his time.

our thoughts are with you Debbie and family.

we will miss Noel at our MR2 meets and our dinner gatherings.

Dixon and Linda

Will miss Noel, he had awesome sense of humor and cutting straight to the point.
Fished out couple photos of him, one in Manfield, back in 2004 when I first met him, another one from a later date..




Our thoughts are with you, Debbie.

A local services is to be held when Debbie returns from up north .

Copy and past from another source .

Debbie today and she said that they are having a service for noel in whangarei on Friday. she isn't expecting anyone from here to go so has suggested a get together a bit later - probably around the weekend of the 25/26 January. She will confirm when she gets back to wellington.
COLIN

RIP Noel, you made me feel very welcome when I came to visit and I had a great time talking with you. My thoughts are with Debbie+family

*84vvt wrote:A local services is to be held when Debbie returns from up north .

Copy and past from another source .

Debbie today and she said that they are having a service for noel in whangarei on Friday. she isn't expecting anyone from here to go so has suggested a get together a bit later - probably around the weekend of the 25/26 January. She will confirm when she gets back to wellington.
COLIN

Thanks Colin. It'd be great if a bunch of club folk from Windyton and surrounds are able to attend and lend a bit of support to Debbie whenever the local service is held.

Our thoughts are with Debbie on the sad passing of Noel.....

John and Denise Moore
Christchurch....

So sad to hear about Noel's passing. My thoughts are with you, Debbie, and all of Noel"s friends. He was a great guy to talk to and listen to as he tell a yarn with his dry sense of humour and he had such an in-depth knowledge of the club and our past runs.
Rest in peace, Noel.

Here is a very touching email the club received from Debbie just prior to the AGM, 13th March 2014. It will be of interest to all who knew Noel, for sure.

Hi – firstly my apologies for the AGM this year. I will be close by the North Island venue (in Rotorua) but I have promised to support my niece in her first Ultra marathon; the Tararewa Ultra, so I won’t be able to be in Taupo. Given the weather warnings I may have made the wrong choice!
All the best for the meeting and my hearty thanks to the Executive and committee for all of the hard work that you put in on our behalf.

Life membership – I would really like to thank the club for the honour of being made life members and I am truly sorry that I didn’t get around to passing on to you all what it meant to Noel and I while he was still with us. The award was completely unexpected and Noel was delighted and extremely proud – one of the few times he was almost speechless! The certificates took (and still take) pride of place on the wall where Noel could see them every day – even during the last few months when he was less mobile than most of you would remember him.
More important than that as I was reflecting on things, and talking to friends and family, it really came home to me just how much enjoyment we have had from the MR2 club and the people that we have met along the way. We have been to places we would never have gone to otherwise, had heaps of fun and met a wonderful range of folks while doing it. Many of the happy memories of the last 10 years or so have been with friends we have made through the club, even though some of their cars (and their club memberships) are long gone.

Your condolences – a big thanks for the flowers, cards and kind thoughts and words from many of you. Noel & I were up in Whangarei with family when he passed away. While he his body had been getting more frail his passing was still a real shock and after over 40 years together he has left a large hole in my life. It will take me a while to get to grips with him gone.
We had a fabulous Christmas – the Wellington MR2 folks came for a BBQ in the week or two prior at home; we had over 20 people come in at different times on Christmas day (including Michael & Di who we first met through the club); and Noel was determined that we catch up with the family in Whangarei over New Year. We had a lovely time there – his oldest son Greg (the pilot with Cathy Pacific who Noel was so proud of) and his family live there. We stayed with his cousin & her husband. Noel grew up with his cousins (more like his sisters really) and spent his secondary school years in Whangarei so has heaps of long term friends there. We had a family get together just before New year.
If Noel could have written a script for his last week it would have been very close to our time there. We had fresh caught snapper, whitebait fritters (real whitebait from the West Coast), heaps of pavlova and ice cream, and great BBQs. We even got to watch his favourite movie (Top Gun) in 3D on a huge screen his cousins place on the Saturday before we were planning to head off on the Sunday. He was looking forward to going home –the weather had been really hot with high humidity and he was struggling to breathe. Sadly we never made it.
I did think about having a memorial service at home since Whangarei is so far away for lots of people, but in the end I didn’t feel like I could cope with it, I have had to do this email in sessions as I still seem to have a few tears to shed. That aside – I am determined that I will keep in touch (and I still have more cars than I know what to do with). Noel was always happy to open our home to club members and the invitation to visit or to stay still stands. Thanks again for the friendship over the years and for the very kind wishes.

Regards

Debbie Morris

Thanks Charlie
A few of us from Wellington have caught up with Debbie a little while ago and will continue do so.
It was great to see Noel before Christmas and still saddening not to be able to see him again.
Colin