The Otago Daily Times counts down the 150 greatest moments in Otago sport.
If he had remained Hugh Donald Gillies, perhaps his story would not have struck such a chord.
But Duke Gillies: what a name, what a man and what a life.
Gillies was the godfather of Otago surf life-saving, a man who spent three-quarters of a century watching the waves but whose influence will be felt for much longer.
He was a man of the water, so salty you half expected to see barnacles on his skin.
Gillies was a swimming champion as a youngster and gained his nickname when Duke Kahunamoko, the Hawaiian world champion, gave demonstrations in New Zealand.
An injury curtailed his involvement in other sports but, limp and all, he found his calling in life-saving. It was once estimated he had rescued at least three dozen people from the sea.
Gillies had a 76-year association with the St Clair Surf Life Saving Club, holding almost every official position. In the 1930s, he coached the St Clair six-man junior team to national honours, and was in the senior team which won the Nelson Shield for rescue and resuscitation.
"Life-saving got into me," he later told Otago Daily Times reporter Kim Dungey. "People need it and you've got to have people to do these things. If you don't do the work, it doesn't get done."
Perhaps his greatest contribution was designing a revolutionary four-man surf rescue canoe in 1932.
Until then, life-savers swam to those in difficulty with a reel and a belt. Canoes were available, but the Gillies-designed craft was the first built high at the front to withstand large waves, going both in and out.
He and friends built the first wooden canoe in his backyard at St Kilda. It became the standard rescue craft in New Zealand and was the forerunner of the fibreglass models which were used well into the 1950s.
Gillies was a foundation member of the Otago Surf Life Saving Association, and president of Surf Life Saving New Zealand from 1956 to 1958.
He received the order of MBE in 1974 for his efforts. He was also active in Special Olympics, and a lifelong supporter of the St Clair salt water pool.
Gillies died in 2002, aged 95.
