It’s an invigorating chat with Ron Johnson, as the 93-year-old strides quickly from one subject to another describing different periods from his action-packed life.
His abundant energy and athleticism are astounding for someone in their 10th decade, more in keeping of a man 20 years younger, and the reason the Times is catching up with Johnson is because he’s won more athletics awards.
If there’s one thing that’s been a constant in the Times over the past 20 years, at least, is we’ve always had an annual sports story to report after Johnson has returned from masters’ athletics championships with a large haul of medals.
He won six medals at the national masters’ athletic champs at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland during March, though he freely admits the meets are not what they used to be.
Not like a career highlight, attending and competing at the World Masters Games. At meetings such as that and at previous nationals, he’d usually enter 10 to 15 competitions.
Johnson said the numbers of golden-aged athletes turning up for events has dwindled significantly, and in his 90-plus age group, it’s down to just him and his long-time competitor Jim Blair, also 93, of Wellington.
He says the Covid era was a major disruption to masters’ athletics meets. People have lost interest, and he’s also been hampered, unusually, by a lingering hamstring injury.
The other news Johnson has is he “finished up” Pakuranga Howick Realty recently, the very successful business he had for decades.
It hasn’t operated with agents in recent years but has maintained its property management rentals business.
Now that long-serving property manager Benson Kerse is heading into a well-deserved retirement, it’s time for Pakuranga & Howick Realty to be wound up for good, explains Johnson.
Another issue the Pakuranga Athletic Club legend has is what to do with the sizable box of medals and ribbons he’s won down the years. There’s at least a few hundred.
He shows the box in the back of his car, along with a few other memorabilia pieces from the realty office and photographs from his past.
Over the next 15 minutes, Johnson provides a glimpse of what he did to get to where is now: Standing fit as a fiddle in his 94th year on the Yvette Williams Track at Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga, holding a javelin. He likes to practise it often.
Johnson’s originally a Scouser, from Liverpool, England, who left school at 14, and he remembers the Germans dropping bombs in the Second World War.
Later, he spent two years in the British Army and was posted to Germany after WWII.
There are quick adventurous stories such as working on a ship as a dishwasher in his early days – Liverpool to New York was one passage – working in construction in Sydney and Perth and getting a chance to start selling when he was about 30.
He made it to New Zealand, was employed by Fletchers for a time, and then built-up Pakuranga & Howick Realty to be a market leader in east Auckland real estate, well remembered for introducing free auctions.
And with that, we finish our lively chat and head in our own respective directions. One thing is certain: Ron Johnson has had a remarkably interesting life, formed by a spirit of always keeping going and being determined to achieve goals.
That hard-work ethic and will to enjoy the journey is obviously his tonic for a happy, fit and healthy life.
He’s totally self-made and must be respected for that. And does it all with a smile.
