SNN_December_2023

SPINAL NETWORK NEWS 11
LEGEND—Sir Tim Wallis always had time
for people—here he is with Barry Cardno.
In 2005, Hurricane Tim, the biography on Sir Tim Wallis
was published. In 2009, my autobiography, Let Fly! was
published. Tim wrote the foreword for my book.
At the funeral, son Jonathan spoke of the motto his father
lived by—“Never let what you can’t do stop you from
doing what you can do.”
Indeed, Timothy William Wallis was a quintessential
example of someone who never let what he could not do,
stop him from doing what he could do.
Ben Lucas, former NZST CEO
As I write this, I have just had the honour and privilege of
attending the funeral celebration for Sir Tim Wallis—
better known as just Tim. Those two words—‘honour’ and
‘privilege’ sums up everything about Tim and my
relationship with Tim and Prue. It was a celebration. A
celebration of a life that had so much packed into it. The
life of a pioneer. The life of an adventurer. The life of an
entrepreneur. The life of a family man.
Tim broke ground on so many projects, but is best known
for helicopters, all things deer and his passion for classic
aircraft. He was also a pioneer in the sense of his spinal
cord injury, having broken his back in 1968. This was a
time where big spinal cord injury advancements were still
being made. This spinal injury meant nothing to Tim. He
just got on with it, embodying everything the later formed
NZ Spinal Trust stood for, and stands for to this day.
Tim was told he’d never fly again, but he worked it out and
convinced the CAA to give him back his rating. One of
Tim’s mantras was, “Don’t let what you can’t do stand in
the way of the things you can do”. This summed up his
life after his injury.
He continued to think up new projects and see them
through to fruition. These projects were often in
—Barry Cardno
Timothy William Wallis was
a quintessential example of
someone who never let what
he could not do, stop him from
doing what he could do.
challenging situations including Siberia, Russia, and the
wilds of Fiordland. He did this all with a spinal injury—all
without a thought to the challenges that we know his
spinal injury would have presented.
I only knew Tim after his 1996 Spitfire crash which left
him with a significant brain injury. Again, he was
presented with one of his most significant challenges. Yet
another he overcame.
Tim and Prue came into my life when I became Chief
Executive of the NZST in 2011. I knew as soon as I met Tim
and Prue that they were both exceptional people. Tim
always had a big smile and expounded the wonderful
work the NZST does to anyone and everyone who would
listen. That smile was ever present in all the photos that
were on display at his funeral.
Tim’s presence was immense, and to me, his head injury
may have slowed him down a bit but his spark and zest for
life burned like a furnace within him. I loved his
perpetual positivity—he was one of those people who,
after you’d been with him, you left feeling just that little
bit better. Every time.