Father Timmerman (100) will be forever remembered as a committed long-standing priest in Rotorua, He died in Auckland but had spent the majority of his 65 years of priesthood in Rotorua, retiring in 2008 at 91. He came to NZ in 1949, after graduating from religious training in his birth country, the Netherlands, in 1945. His commitment to his flock saw him learn te reo Maori and was instrumental in setting up both Mary MacKillop College and Edmund Rice College, which later merged to become John Paul College.