Mick was born in Edendale, Southland, a thriving ‘farmyard of New Zealand’; a strong character who loved sport. Trained as a carpenter in the 1930s, he joined a militant communist-led union. He met the Oxford Group (later MRA) through his wife Olive and saw broken homes mended, trust built between labour and management, taxes paid honestly, bitterness ended and races united. He and Olive dedicated their lives to this work.
Mick served on the NZ Executive of the Carpenters' Union, which changed its approach. Rich friendships followed with five prime ministers: Peter Fraser, Sidney Holland, Keith Holyoake, Walter Nash and John Marshall. The first two supported the visit of an Australian MRA force with the play The Forgotten Factor in 1950. 32,000 saw it and hundreds of lives were changed.
Mick had a lifelong concern for Maori-Pakeha relations. He built bridges of trust with Maori, often travelling with them: Kahi Harawira in the ’50s, young Maori to Australia and India in the ’60s, and Canon Wi and Ybel Huata, Tom Ormond and others in the ’70s and ’80s. His last visit to Caux in 1997, was to accompany the Maori Queen, Dame TeAtairangikaahu, Joan Bolger, wife of the Prime Minister, and other Maori and Pakeha leaders.
Suresh Khatri, a Fijian who met MRA in Auckland wrote, "Mick has done as much and even more for Fiji and the South Pacific as any other Kiwi ever has."
In 1998, Mick published The Whole Round Earth to Span, recording his experience of MRA over 66 years.
