Mr Whiting, understood to be in his late 50s, intended to address the community and services meeting during a public forum.
In an email to the Otago Daily Times on Wednesday, Mr Whiting said he planned to speak to the committee to help a group of residents in Maxwell Pl and Panorama Tce who had been fighting to keep two healthy poplar trees on council road reserve at Queenstown Hill from being felled at the request of a property owner.
He collapsed just before the meeting began at 10am and despite efforts from council staff, including councillor and doctor Val Miller, could not be resuscitated.
Mr Whiting was no stranger to lobbying the council and stood, unsuccessfully, for election in 2013.
Lawyer Graeme Todd, of Todd & Walker Law, told the Otago Daily Times Mr Whiting — a criminal and immigration lawyer — was a passionate advocate, particularly on environmental matters.
Despite suffering from ill health for many years, Mr Whiting continued to help those who might not have been able to afford lawyers, Mr Todd said.
"You have those types of people come along every few years, people like in the past [late Department of Conservation biodiversity manager] Barry Lawrence, who was a passionate environmental advocate, and Bryce, in some ways, picked up a lot of that in an unstructured way, without a formal environmental society or anything, but he did do a lot of that type of work and was often seen to be holding council and council staff to account."
Former Queenstown Lakes mayor Vanessa van Uden said Mr Whiting, a long-time Queenstown resident, was a man with strong convictions who was passionate about issues involving reserves and public open space.
"He was well researched, he’d always done his own work and he always had something valuable to contribute."
Former councillor Cath Gilmour said the community needed more people like Mr Whiting, who fought for "what he saw as fundamental principles of democracy.
"He was always totally sincere and it was always about the community benefit, it was never for Bryce Whiting.
"He had an eagle eye for things that might smell wrong and he was prepared to stick his neck out and ... speak up for those who might not be able to advocate on their own behalf, and it’s really important to have those people in a community."
Resident Els Kleinjan said Mr Whiting was at Thursday’s committee meeting to lobby against the removal of the two poplar trees on council reserve land to improve the views from a yet-to-be constructed property.
Mrs Kleinjan said she had known Mr Whiting for many years. She contacted him for advice "and he said ‘I’m coming to help you’."
"Before he died he was here three times on Wednesday, [he] kept coming with this and that. He was really so passionate ... about helping people, but his aim was to make sure that policies were followed."
She said Mr Whiting, a regular attendee at St Peter’s Church in Queenstown, was a man with "huge faith" and integrity, who sought justice and fairness for all.
"I admired him."
