Aotearoa in 20: Ian Turner lives in an abandoned gentlemen’s club and is full of opinions

Wednesday, 2 September 2020

Ian Turner is used to being the most unpopular man in the room but at 73, he doesn’t really care.

Ian Turner is used to being the most unpopular man in the room but at 73, he doesn’t really care. He shares his story for Aotearoa in 20, a Stuff project.

I am an activist, I am outspoken, but I’m a realist.

I make decisions based on evidence. I can argue with people, but I won’t shut the door on them.

One of my workmates once told me I was the most unpopular man in the place, but I didn’t care. I know people who will say one thing in public, but share a completely different view behind closed doors.

I’ve learnt in life it’s more important to be right than it is to be popular. I’m 73 now and I do think I have mellowed a bit.

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Ian Turner worries the liberalisation of society has gone too far.

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Growing up on a small farm in a village near Whanganui post-WWII was a defining time in Ian Turner’s life.

I’m soft, I’m quite emotional underneath, but I am hard when it comes to making decisions.

I retired about two years ago, but I worked for years in the Eltham freezing works and did a 10-year stint at Yarrows Bakery. I was also a union man.

The two most influential people in my life was my father who taught me to be a man, who had a strength of purpose, and my first wife who taught me more about love than anybody else and who taught me how to be respectful.

Ian Turner bought his home, an abandoned gentlemen’s club, about 20 years ago, for “dirt cheap”.

I think because of it, I have tried to understand people’s different points of view and to respect it even it I don’t agree with it. I’m not a person who will stand on the sideline and witness other people being taken down when they shouldn’t be.

I grew up in a little village called Okoia, which is near Whanganui, that was a defining moment in my life. We lived on a small farm and after World War II ended, families from Latvia, Hungary and Scotland came to live in the area.

I was always assigned to help these kids. Now I help young people who find themselves in trouble with the law and I go to court with them. I’ve had my own run-ins with the police too. I got my first conviction in my 30s and had a string of them since. I was recently convicted for careless driving but I’m appealing that decision.

I’m not a fan of the way the justice system is going. One of my biggest worries is that the liberalisation of society has gone too far.

The older I get, the harder it is to see the impact social problems are having on young people, including drug abuse and family breakdown. To fix things, this country is going to have to go back to proper families.

Eltham's Ian Turner has had his brushes with the law, but is unapologetic about having an opinion.

Along with my dad, my first wife Faye was the most influential person in my life.

I first saw her when I was 16. She was walking down the street, and I was coming the other way. It was love at first sight. That was it for me.

I asked my friend who she was and I told him one day I was going to marry her. He laughed and said that would never happen. But it did.

We had an old-fashioned courtship before we got married, both aged 21. She was one out of the box.

Faye was 24 when she died, three months after the birth of our daughter. She had cancer, which they discovered after she gave birth. When she died, there was no support for sole parents like there is today, and I was glad of that.

I really had to change my life and man up. I took on Christian values and gave up drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. I take the tenet that most Christians should, you love the person while you despise the sin. If you’re a good person, I’ll treat you as a good person.

I moved into this abandoned gentleman’s club in Eltham about 20 years ago. We got it dirt cheap. I ended up spending all the money on the roof, but have never had the cash to do much else with it.

I said to my family I want to die in this place, I just love it.

All up I have eight children, my firstborn and the seven that followed with my second wife, who I had since divorced. They are my greatest achievement in life.

My daily routine is pretty simple, after breakfast I usually walk the dogs. I have a passion for karaoke but one of the things I love to do is sit in front of a roaring fire, to me it’s extremely stress-relieving.

On a personal level, I really enjoy my life. Assets wise, I’m very poor but in the realities of life I’m very rich.

As told to Deena Coster for ‘Aotearoa in 20’, a Stuff project.