Obituary: Daryl McAlinden

Daryl McAlinden, a financial adviser at Camelot’s Wellington office, reached the end of his "home straight of life" at the weekend, the group said.

Wednesday, October 12th 2016, 6:00AM

McAlinden discovered he had terminal cancer after suffering a stroke in August.

But he packed his final months with family gatherings, a living wake, numerous visitors and contact with long-standing clients.

“Daryl enjoyed all of the stories shared knowing how much he touched people’s lives and they in turn, his," the Camelot team said in a statement.

"On behalf of our team, we want to express how much we have enjoyed having Daryl as part of our Camelot family over the last four years that Daryl has been working within our team.”

McAlinden started with Camelot in 2012, when Money Concepts, of which he was a director, merged with the group.

He had been in the financial planning sector for many years, with roles with BPIR.com, Protecta Insurance and Caledonian Financial Services.

“From the day he started, we all thought he was like a machine,” the Camelot team said.

“He just had an amazing work ethic and routine, his days were always filled with seeing clients, in between appointments he was banging away on his computer as touch typing was never Daryl’s thing, we even had to resort to buying him a separate keyboard so as not to destroy the laptop he was pounding away on. Considering it was a two-finger typing style, it was very impressive the amount of reports he ploughed on through.

“Daryl hardly ever stopped to join in with any work chatter, although it most possibly was the fact he couldn’t hear what most of us were saying other than his faithful PA Frances. The stern tone that Frances used to get his attention was one he was well tuned in with, he could hear Frances from across the office and would immediately jump to attention. Without a doubt, he absolutely worshipped Frances for all the help and support she gave him. Each time Daryl won a bottle of wine as a prize for a team competition, he would plonk that bottle of wine on Frances desk as he always said he couldn’t have managed without her. They were a great work crew together.

“We all joked with Daryl that we were going to put a flashing emergency light on the top of his workstation to highlight him to the fact that his phone was ringing. Whilst we knew his hearing was far from the best, he also was so focused on what he was doing, interruptions just didn’t register.”

McAlinden was remembered as a great team player who would get stuck into team competitions at each conference.

“During a tug of war session in Rotorua one year, knee deep in the mud pools, Daryl at the front of the rope and his trusty anchor-man Syd at the back, with a cluster of our ladies holding their own in the middle, Daryl made sure clear instructions were thrown back to his team, intimidating the opponents with winning results for Daryl’s team. He was a very strong man, physically and mentally. He earned the nickname ‘Big D’ from there.

“Daryl never let the team down, he always dressed up for every Fancy Dress party we had, every fundraising event we went to even if it did involve lots of exercise, Daryl was there. The social cooking challenge was most entertaining, Daryl who said he preferred to avoid kitchens at all costs especially when there were so many takeaways shops near his home that relied on his support, put himself to good use, writing the most hilarious poem which was part of the cooking competition. He didn’t falter with his words of flattery to try and impress the judges. Who knew, our Daryl was a poet. We are so grateful to have had Daryl as part of our team, he will be greatly missed by both his work colleagues and his clients. Our thoughts are with his family at this very sad time.”

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