Dick Dunn was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 coach.

Life & Achievements

Richard Dunn was born in 1908 in the coal-mining town of Millerton

Millerton, New Zealand

Millerton is a small settlement in the northwestern South Island of New Zealand in the West Coast region. It is in the Papahaua Ranges, around 25 kilometres north east of Westport, on SH67 from Westport to Karamea....

 on the South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

's West Coast. His father was a stone-tunneller who bored into the sides of hills looking for seams of coal. Dick ran the very successful Railway Workshops boxing gym in the Hutt Valley.

He was trained by an Australian boxer and when Dunn was 18 he moved into training for himself. In 1929 he moved his gymnasium from Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

 to the Hutt Valley and eventually set up in Moera’s Railway Workshops, starting off training 100 boys. The gymnasium was open five nights a week and a local policeman used to bring trouble-making boys there in the hope it would give them an interest and to keep them off the streets. Dick had a simple policy on accepting people.

Dunn still found time to compete in the ring and won the Hutt Valley and Wellington lightweight title in 1933, but retired shortly after. In the ring there was none tougher or of more determined mind, but outside the ring Dick made it his life ambition to befriend all who had the time to chat.

Champions he coached included Frank Creagh

Frank Creagh

Frank Creagh was a former New Zealand boxer.He won the gold medal in the men's heavyweight division at the 1950 British Empire Games.-References:...

, who won heavyweight gold at the 1950 Auckland Empire Games, Wallace Coe

Wallace Coe

Wallace Coe is a former New Zealand boxer.He won the gold medal in the men's 64 - 69kg division at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.-References:...

, who took out the welterweight gold in Perth in 1962, Bill Kinney, who won the heavyweight gold in Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 in 1966, Lyn Philp

Lyn Philp

Lyn Philp was a New Zealand professional boxer, and New Zealand's Bantamweight Champion from 1947 - 1954.*Ranked fourth best bantamweight New Zealand all time greats....

 bantamweight champion 1948 - 1954, and Billy Graham, who won four national titles.

Dunn was a selector for the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch and coached for the Olympic Solidarity Fund.

Dunn’s sporting interests extended to soccer, racing, rugby, rugby league and cricket. He founded a cricket club at the age of 21 and played 52 consecutive seasons of Wellington senior cricket. He also coached men’s and women’s cricket in the Hutt Valley for decades, rising to coach the New Zealand women’s team.

He retired to Bulls

Bulls

Bulls may refer to:*Bulls, the male of cattle*Bulls, New Zealand, Rangitikei township*Papal bulls, a charter issued by a popeIn sports:*Bulls , a rugby union franchise operated by the Blue Bulls...

 in 1974 and founded the Bulls RSA Amateur Boxing Club. In 1987 Dunn was awarded the Queen's Service Medal

Queen's Service Order

The Queen's Service Order was established by Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, awarded by the government of New Zealand "for valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to the Crown or similar services within the public sector, whether in elected or...

 for services to sport

He and his wife Myra (Chum), who he married in Petone

Petone

Petone is a major suburb of the city of Lower Hutt in New Zealand. It is located at the southern end of the narrow triangular plain of the Hutt River, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour...

 1940, moved to Wairarapa

Wairarapa

Wairarapa is a geographical region of New Zealand. It occupies the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service towns, with Masterton being the largest...

 in 1985.

A great man Richard 'Dick' Dunn died on the 7th August 2001, in Masterton

Masterton

Masterton is a large town and local government district in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. It is the largest town in the Wairarapa, a region separated from Wellington by the Rimutaka ranges...

, aged 93.

People coached

Dick coached many champions:

• Lyn Philp
  Lyn Philp
  Lyn Philp was a New Zealand professional boxer, and New Zealand's Bantamweight Champion from 1947 - 1954.*Ranked fourth best bantamweight New Zealand all time greats....
  
  
• Billy Graham
• Frank Creagh
  Frank Creagh
  Frank Creagh was a former New Zealand boxer.He won the gold medal in the men's heavyweight division at the 1950 British Empire Games.-References:...
  
  
• Wally Coe
• Bill Kinney

Memberships

Dick was a life member of:

• The New Zealand Boxing Association
• New Zealand Boxing Coaches Association
• Riverside Petone Cricket Club
• Stop Out Soccer Club http://www.stopout.org.nz
• Wellington and Hutt Valley Boxing Trainers Association

At the age of 80 Dick was awarded the Queen's Service Medal

Queen's Service Order

The Queen's Service Order was established by Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, awarded by the government of New Zealand "for valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to the Crown or similar services within the public sector, whether in elected or...

for services to sport.