A most interesting "Life and Times". Robin Aitken was born in Glasgow but has spent much of his life at sea.
After an apprenticeship for Shell tankers when he went everywhere but saw nothing (because the tankers rarely stopped for long anywhere) He moved on to tramp steamers, saw more and became progressively more qualified. Working for Blue Star Line brought him to Lower Hutt where he married a mate's sister's flatmate.
He took his Master's Certificate in Wellington, played rugby for Hutt Old Boys, (a Great Club -ed.) returned to sea, came back to Wellington, moved to shore work at Port Auckland, then Port Chalmers and then New Plymouth where he worked until he retired in 2008. Robin joined New Plymouth Rotary in 1987, was twice President and became Assistant District Governor. He has worked on several District committees (where he met Dave Wilson), and developed great respect for the Rotary administration. After his wife died in 2017, he moved to Wellington to be closer to family and grandchildren.
Robin answered the question "Why I joined Rotary" by holding up a picker-upper from the previous day's cleaning-the-Hutt-River project and quoted Graeme Blick, .....".because Rotary consists of Good people who have done good things, still do good things, and will continue doing so in the future."
Thank you, Robin, for an account of a very interesting life.