Children

 William Whittet
William was born on October 14th, 1927 in 16 Baffin St, Dundee.  He died from cancer, lung cancer from cigarettes and pipe, at the age of 76 on July 10th, 2004 in 870 Mt Eden Rd, Auckland.  The funeral took place on July 16th, 2004 in Purewa Crematorium, Auckland and was arranged by Davis.  He was cremated on July 16th, 2004 in Purewa Crematorium, Auckland.^3 3 
• Death Notes

  Born in Dundee to George and Georgina Whittet of 16 Baffin Street.  A little street of tenement houses between the shipyards and the jute mills.  George worked in the shipyard and Georgina worked in a jute mill.
  
  At 14    
  Father had died of pneumonia.  Leave school to start work.
  First job was delivering telegrams for the Dundee Post Office.
  
  By 17    
  Advanced from a push bike to a motor bike.  At 17 he was a dashing young man dashing about town on his Post Office motorbike.  It wasn't long before he attracted the attention of a very pretty bank teller called Isabel.   We don't know a lot about their early courtship, except for the story of how he embarrassed himself by skidding off his bike right in front of her while trying out some sort of hollywood stunt in the middle of town. 
  
  Just 18
  Joined the Navy.  Posted to a naval yard and aerodrome between Portsmouth and Southampton on the English Channel.
  Trained as an airframes mechanic with the Naval Fleet Air Arm.
  Work history sheet - qualifications - experienced at dope spraying.
  
  By 22
  Left the Navy.  Moved back home to Dundee.  Married the aforementioned Isobel Webb, the very pretty younger daughter of a Dundee tramcar driver.  He worked for a year or so with the Singer Sewing Machine company and then 5 years with a local paint and wallpaper manufacturer.   Both jobs involved a lot of travelling.
  He was a sales and service representative.  Also about this time he got back into cycling but on a tandem with Isobel on the back.  They once cycled 100 miles in one day which is equivalent to the ride around Taupo.
  
  At 27
  He and mum now had 2 young toddlers and the travelling sales job was not ideal.  Joined NCR at their new manufacturing plant at Dundee.  He worked in the production control and materials handling office.  At this time during the mid 1950's it was in this sort of manufacturing environment where the earliest computers were being used and he was the right person in the right place at the right time.  He went to night school to learn about computers and particularly about systems analysis.  His special ability was to be able to analyse a whole series of manual processes and find the best way to computerise them.  This was the start of his career in computers that would bring us all to NZ and lead on to the Wanganui Computer Project.
  
  
  39
  Emigrated to NZ.  1967.  Dad arranged a transfer from NCR in Dundee to NCR in Auckland and he started here as a senior systems analyst. There were several computers around Auckland at that time.  The University had one and companies like NCR had one.  They were generally used for doing company payrolls.  Dad had about 10 years experience in computer processes and so he quickly became the local expert.  One of his larger assignments at this time was the various computer processes associated with the construction of the Glenbrook steel mill.
  
  41
  But the larger assignments within NCR were controlled from head office in Wellington so NCR transferred him and us to Wellington. 
  So Dad gets transferred to Wellington because he's a bit of a computer whizz, Lorna meets Paul, Rod meets Cherry. 
  Now that's the real power of computers. 
  Dad was now the Project Manager for the installation of computer systems in the head offices of a growing number of nation-wide companies. 
  
  At 45
  Head-hunted by the government and he was now working for the State Services Commission in Wellington.  The Government wanted to set up a Law Enforcement Database which would combine all the records  from the Police, Justice and Transport departments.   Dad was chosen to write the specifications for the project and then lead the team that would build NZ first Big Brother computer.  The project took a couple of years from start to finish and then Dad stayed on to manage it for a further 5 years.
  From a career viewpoint the Wanganui Computer project was Dad's crowning glory and something he was justly proud of.
  
  By 52
  The Wanganui Computer had settled down into routine operation. 
  He was transferred back to Wellington as an Assistant General Manager.
  We didn't get to hear much about his subsequent assignments back at head office.  Maybe they were too secret and he didn't want to have to shoot us.  Maybe there's an even bigger version of the big brother computer.