Mike Charles Price ZL2MCP
Sam Price described his father’s woeful attempts to make pizza on the barbecue as well as recalling a 2020 father and son road trip around New Zealand’s East Cape While reciting' favourite Monty Python sketches along the way.
“There weren’t many tourists around at the time so we pretty much had the entire area to ourselves. We had a great time driving down just about every side road we came across and uncovering hidden gems,” Sam said.
“I have some great memories and I’m so glad we got to do it.” '
Younger sister Meghan said although her father had been “taken too soon”, he had left her with wonderful memories and she would even cherish the ones of his embarrassing “dad jokes” and his endless chat about radio.
“I have made a New Year’s resolution to embrace life with the same level of positivity and enthusiasm that dad did,” Meghan said.
Price was born in the county of Cheshire in Northwest England and his family said he was “born curious” with a fascination for gadgetry.
“His first job was developing engineering software for a ball-bearing factory,” Julia said.
His children said although Price had separated from their mother Sara some years ago, their parents were still good friends and family to each other.
Before moving to New Zealand, Price and Sara lived and worked in different places, including Düsseldorf, and Price spoke passable German, which came in handy when they later visited the country with friends and their small children on holiday.
The couple moved to Auckland in 1992 and later to Wellington.
Sara moved to Whanganui with the two younger children when they separated and Price later decided to make it his home base as business partner Woodhouse had also made the move from Wellington. They would later move their business and Proaxiom began operating in Whanganui in 2015.
As well as his work with Proaxiom, Price was the national co-ordinator of GovHack Aotearoa -- a festival of ideas using open government data to make communities better places.
The role involved a lot of trans-Tasman travel and Price organised a number of collaborative events in Whanganui.
Masina Kenworthy met Price through a GovHack event when she was managing the former Whanganui Computer Clubhouse around six years ago.
“Mike offered me a job with Proaxiom and I loved working with him," she said.
“The only bad thing I could say about him is that he could never say ‘no’. He always wanted to help everyone who asked for help and that could be stressful sometimes.
