THE PRESS, Christchurch Saturday, January 14, 2012 C13 OBITUARIES Rugby player and racer lived in the fast lane njuries and crashes plagued He was the youngest of eight played only intermittently because Kennedy moved into and power boats. Jan says when Jim Kennedy’s sporting children in a Kaikoura family and of injuries. He was devastated management in the rental car they went out on their big launch career. The Canterbury was named Jim Parker Kennedy when a knock in the 1950 match business and did well. In 1964 he she had to plead with him to slow rugby player was tipped for after 1924 All Black uncle Jim against Southland forced his bought West Coast Ford dealership down and avoid the wake of the All Black honours but hung Parker. When he was 3, his father withdrawal from the team that Greymouth Motors. He, Jan and Interisland ferries. Iup his boots early because of died. His mother moved to took the Ranfurly Shield from their two sons moved to The nearest he came to slowing recurring knee and hip problems. Christchurch and brought him up Otago soon after. Greymouth for the next 20 years. down was watching rugby on A series of motorcycle crashes there. He attended Richmond A visiting British rugby league With almost unlimited access to television. stymied plans for this holder of Primary School and Christchurch scout, who signed Canterbury Ford cars and mechanical ‘‘Then he would stare intently two national speed records to Boys’ High School, excelling in centre Tom Lynch, sought services, he took up saloon car at the play, taking it all in and compete in the Isle of Man races. sports. After two years in the Boys’ Kennedy also but was racing. His Cortinas, Falcons, analysing it without uttering a Being run over by an out-of-control High first rugby XV, he was offered unsuccessful. Capris and Escorts became a word,’’ Jan says. racing car forced him to step down the captaincy but left school Kennedy switched his attention common sight on circuits across ‘‘He was very over the top in from saloon car racing to the lower instead. He was promptly included to motor bikes in 1953. His brother the South Island. everything he did. He was all-in for pace of rallying. in the Old Boys senior team. had bought him an army surplus The end to racing came while everything, very one-eyed for Kennedy’s life revolved around Kennedy began to learn Indian bike for £10 and on this he testing cars on the Greymouth Canterbury,’’ she says. speed, says his wife, Jan. In his last surveying but found it too slow. He learned to ride and work with airstrip. Kennedy saw a runaway Although not one for years, she tried to convert him to worked at the freezing works in engines. Soon he had more bikes car heading for him, so he dived socialising, he was always cheerful golf or bowls. She bought the gear Belfast during the killing season and was competing regularly in into undergrowth beside the and loved to talk rugby and motor for him but he hardly touched it. and took whatever jobs he could races all over the South Island. He airstrip. The car followed and ran racing with interested people. Those sports were just too slow, find at other times. set long-standing national speed over him. The severity of his ‘‘He was not bothered with she says. Rugby meant everything to him records in 1954 in the 350cc and injuries led him to switch to anything else.’’ MIKE CREAN He did get into boating. He at this stage. His ambition was to 500cc classes, on his Norton bikes. rallying. He drove Fords in rallies owned about 20 craft in the be an All Black and critics noted Commentators began saying he all over New Zealand. Marlborough Sounds in the past 20 his potential. The big, fast, hard- would not look out of place in the Jim Kennedy: Boater, driver and one-eyed Canterbury supporter. Kennedy retired to Christ- ■ Jim Parker Kennedy, born Kaikoura, years, but even then ‘‘he drove too running wing developed a Isle of Man events and this became church in 1984. For the next 20 March 8, 1929; died Christchurch, fast’’, Jan says. reputation for bumping off his ambition. But he kept crashing. years he and Jan shuttled between December 22, 2011. Survived by wife Kennedy’s life was a headlong tacklers. He was selected for He married Jan Heard in 1955. began helping him at race his crashes became too much and the city and the Sounds, where he Jan, sons James and Jeremy and four rush, until his recent death, at 82. Canterbury from 1950 to 1953 but They had met at a dance and she meetings – until the frequency of she opted to stay at home. sailed and drove a range of yachts grandchildren. Friend helped Pope repair the past erzy Kluger, a Polish Jew 1978 until his death in 2005, John grade school, played soccer in the Polish army and fighting with the the pope enjoyed with few others, whose lifelong friendship with Paul II was credited with doing streets and did homework Allies in Egypt and in Italy. After Fisher said. Kluger spoke openly, JPope John Paul II helped the more than any other pope to unite together. Kluger, who became an the war, with no family to return helping the Pope understand pontiff’s efforts to repair Catholic- the Catholic and Jewish faiths. His engineer, let the young Karol see to in Poland, he moved to England Jewish sensibilities. Jewish relations after centuries of dedication to those efforts, church his maths homework. The future and later to Rome, where he The New York Times reported anti-Semitism, died on December scholars said, stemmed in part pope let Jurek copy his Latin entered business. that, while hospitalised after an 31 at a hospital in Rome. from his intense friendship with exercises, Kluger’s wife said. The two men were reunited assassination attempt in 1981, the He was 90 and had Alzheimer’s, Kluger, who lost much of his One incident left a profound during the Second Vatican Pope asked Kluger to help him his wife, Irene Kluger, said. family in the Holocaust. impact on Kluger. After learning Council, which brought then begin a diplomatic effort that in In the Polish town of Wadowice, Kluger was a ‘‘link with the that both boys had passed their Archbishop Wojtyla to Rome. 1993 ended with the Vatican where the pope and Kluger met as pope’s past’’, Eugene Fisher, the high school exams, he ran to the Kluger contacted his old friend, officially recognising the state of boys in the 1920s, their friendship co-editor of The Saint for Shalom: church, where he knew he would who agreed to meet him. Israel. Kluger was described as was a somewhat unusual one. How Pope John Paul II find his friend, to share the news. The friendship was rekindled, playing a behind-the-scenes but Lifelong rapport: Jerzy Kluger with his boyhood friend, Pope John Paul II. Karol Wojtyla, who would become Transformed Catholic-Jewish Another parishioner recognised and for the rest of their lives they key role in the process. pope, came from a deeply Catholic Relations, said. ‘‘Perhaps the most Kluger as a Jew and asked why he were in close touch. The newly John Paul II became the first family. Kluger came from an profound change in Christianity had come. installed Pope John Paul II pope to visit a synagogue and to 1921, in Krakow and grew up in While fighting with the Polish observant Jewish one. was the change brought about in When Wojtyla heard this, he surprised many Vatican watchers visit the Auschwitz death camp. In Wadowice. His father was the army in Africa, Kluger met his For centuries, scholars have Catholic-Jewish relations,’’ he responded, ‘‘Aren’t we all God’s by reserving his first private 1998, he issued an official ‘‘act of president of the Jewish future wife, Irene White, a driver said, anti-Semitism was ingrained said. children?’’ The young men lost audience as pontiff for Kluger and repentance’’ for the Catholic community and a successful for the British army. They married in Catholic teachings, which Kluger and the Pope knew each touch during World War II, when his family. Church’s failure to do more to stop lawyer. Kluger grew up ‘‘living in Egypt before he fought at Monte blamed Jews for the death of other by their boyhood nicknames, Kluger was imprisoned in a Soviet Over lunches and dinners, the the Holocaust. like a prince,’’ his wife said, until Cassino in 1944. Christ. During his papacy, from Jurek and Lolek. They met in labour camp before joining the pair had intimate conversations Kluger was born on April 4, the German invasion in 1939. Washington Post