John Turner worked in public administration for 43 years, becoming Canberra's city manager and helping to set up the nuts and bolts of self-government in the national capital.
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He died aged 80 on February 14, leaving a great legacy in the work he did for Canberra, a city father, through and through. He played a key role in the creation of Floriade, the declaration of Namadgi National Park and establishment of the Parks and Conservation Service.
Mr Turner's work included three decades as a senior officer working within the ACT Administration under the Commonwealth and later the ACT Government.
He retired as chief executive of Urban Services in 1997. He had first joined the public service - the Department of the Navy - in Melbourne as a 15-year-old clerk.
He moved to Canberra in 1959, originally for a six-month posting, remembering it as a "big country town" of 45,000 people.
"I loved the place, so I decided to stay," he told The Canberra Times in 1994.
"You went shopping on a Friday night in Kingston and met the entire population."
In 1965 he was recruited to what was then the Department of the Interior, enjoying working on "things that matter in your own city".
When it was announced in 1987 that Mr Turner would be ACT City Manager, the first since 1982, his office was to have responsibility for transport policy, roads, traffic management, technical services, public transport, parks and conservation, recreation, housing and the ACT Fire Brigade.
When asked in 1988 what he thought of the job, Mr Turner was clear that he revelled in its grassroots nature.
"So many public servants in Canberra work in policy areas that have nothing to do with the city," he told The Canberra Times.
"I enjoy it because I'm working in a job directly relevant to the community in which I live."
Mr Turner was instrumental in the transition to self-government, including briefing the incoming ministers about their responsibilities. He also had to help the community to understand that budgets were now limited, when before, under the Federal Government, there were seemingly no limits.
"In the old days, you were not faced with the question of whether to put in a swimming pool or tennis courts when you set up a new suburb - you built both," he said in 1997.
"Now you seriously have to consider which one, or whether you can do away with them altogether."
From 1988 to 1997 he managed the Department of Urban Services, in the end with responsibility for 4400 staff and an annual budget of more than $180 million.
Mr Turner also set up ACT shopfronts, bringing together multiple ACT Government services in single offices; the first opening in Civic in 1988. This was regarded as a major breakthrough in making it easier for the ACT community to deal with government services.
When Mr Turner retired in 1997, then Chief Minister's Department chief executive John Walker said Mr Turner was widely known and respected for his "frank and fearless advice as a public official".
Mr Turner was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2015 "for significant service to the community through policy direction and reform in public administration, and the social welfare sector, and to cricket".
Now retired public servant Vic Smorhun, who worked with Mr Turner from 1987 to 1993, said Mr Turner was "passionate about providing the best possible service to the ACT community".
"He maintained high standards of ethics and fairness - to people who worked with him and to those who carried out business with the ACT administration," Mr Smorhun said.
"He carried this through from his retirement from the ACT administration in his work in the community sector, such as with Cricket ACT and Communities@Work - where he was similarly highly regarded." (Mr Turner was a chair of Cricket ACT and Communities@Work and a life member of both organisation.)
Long-time friend Bruce Dockrill, in giving a eulogy at Mr Turner's funeral at the Wesley Uniting Church in Forrest on February 23, remembered meeting Mr Turner in 1969 at the old cricket practice wickets at Manuka Oval.
Mr Dockrill said Mr Turner played cricket in Melbourne and later at the Manuka cum Eastlake cricket club.
"He played 224 matches for the club until the early 1980s," he said.
"He played in all grades from first to fourth grade. I recall that he took particular pleasure towards the end of his career in playing in the same team as [son] Richard."
Mr Turner was a former president and patron of the club and made a life member. He was instrumental in securing funds to upgrade Manuka Oval.
Mr Dockrill said he would remember Mr Turner's quiet determination, genuine-ness, sense of humour and "taking people as they are".
Mr Turner is survived by his widow Kath and his three children Richard, Meredith and Philip.
