Kelvin Schedewy
The Puhoi community lost a rangatira last month when Kelvin Schedewy died peacefully at home after a long illness. He was aged 87 and died in the house where he had lived his whole life, on the southern side of hill that bears his family’s name.
At a requiem mass held at the Saints Peter and Paul Church in Puhoi on January 12, Kelvin was remembered as a much-loved family patriarch, respected businessman and community stalwart, who was intensely proud of his Bohemian heritage. Friend Al Mason summed up the sentiments of many when he described Kelvin as “a good bastard”.
The Schedewy family settled in the Puhoi area from Bohemia in the late 1800s and their name is synonymous with the transport industry. Kelvin’s grandfather hauled kauri logs, while his father William (Bill) was carting cream cans to the Ahuroa rail station, on the back of a horse-drawn wagon, when he was just 14.
Kelvin started school at the Puhoi Convent before boarding at Sacred Heart College in Auckland. He returned to help in the business when his father became ill, and he never left. He was 15 at the time and had to get a special dispensation to drive under the age of 18. He started carting 44 gallon drums of fuel to garages in the district and cream cans to the Rodney Dairy Factory in Warkworth. The Schedewy fleet, which ran under the slogan ‘You call, we haul’, consisted of the Dodge trucks Reo and Rugby, followed in the 1960s by Fords and an ERF. The Reo cream truck was a great favourite at local dances. A parking spot would be saved for it beside the hall and the men would converge on the truck to put their beer in the cream cans because, in those days, it was against the law to drink within 3.2kms (two miles) of a dance hall. If there was any drink left over, it would be returned to the owners the next morning, often with Kelvin still wearing his best suit.
When the business started carting stock to the Westfield sales in Otahuhu, there was no Auckland Harbour Bridge and the only road through Orewa was along the beach. Trips had to be timed with the tides and the Waitemata Harbour vehicle ferry. When the trucks got bigger and the roads improved, the Schedewys were carting freight, stock and wool to Auckland, with backloads of supplies for Waiwera, Puhoi and Warkworth.
Kelvin married Mary Davis in 1960, who helped in the business as a driver and in the office before devoting herself to home duties, as the family expanded to include Stephen, Michael (deceased), Suzanne, Julie, Kaylene and Robert. Kelvin and Mary fostered numerous children, including Susan Jane.
When Bill died in 1966, Kelvin and his younger brother Ian took over. Stephen, Michael and Robert eventually became drivers, and Suzanne worked in the office until the business was sold to Rob Donnelly in 1993-94. Kelvin then went on to drive cattle trucks for Hoods, and later, buses and taxis in Warkworth, until ill health forced his retirement.
In 1991, Kelvin married Pat and they enjoyed many happy years together travelling, particularly to truck shows and transport meetings. As a keen photographer, Kelvin documented the history of haulage in the area on his box Brownie. He had more than 90 albums with around 200 photographs in each. He was also a member of the committee that ran the Puhoi Sesquicentennial in 2013, patron and life member of the Puhoi Heritage Museum Society, and a life member of the Northland Road Transport Association.
