He leaves behind his wife of 64 years, Margaret, nine children, 19 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Mr Sheehy was a farm worker in Glenorchy when he met his wife, who had moved there to teach the late Reta and Thommy Thomson's three children while training to become a school teacher.
He later mined scheelite at the head of the lake before moving to Queenstown, where he and a cousin owned Wakatipu Transport.
For 39 years he and Mrs Sheehy lived beside the Queenstown Recreation Ground, where they were handily placed to follow their children's exploits in rugby and cricket.
Mr Sheehy was also across the road from the fire station, where he served for 27 years as a volunteer, earning a Gold Star and life membership.
He and his wife set a record by attending at least 55 consecutive fire brigade annual dinners.
Queenstown friend Phil Wilson said the fire siren used to go off at night, but on one occasion someone forgot to turn it off and Mr Sheehy counted it going off 80 times, which was apparently the ''last straw''.
''I think after that they just used pagers overnight,'' he said.
Mr Wilson said everyone in town knew Mr Sheehy back in the day.
He took the open door policy to the extreme.
''He'd often get drunks coming in and they'd just crash on the couch.''
Mr Wilson, who is the Wakatipu Rugby Club president, said it was a special privilege showing Mr Sheehy the White Horse Cup while the Premiers held it briefly, last month.
His funeral will be held at 1pm tomorrow at Queenstown's St Joseph's Church, where he was a regular worshipper.
-By Philip Chandler
