John Fallon (71) became a Member for the New Zealand Order of Merit for his contribution of more than 35 years to welfare services, mostly for services to mental health, and starting the Victoria Trust, in Timaru, in 1996.
When he was working at the Timaru drop-in centre, Victoria House, a schizophrenic man in his early 30s visiting the centre and was ''blue with cold''.
''He feared everything and everybody and wouldn't go to any of the services - and was not receiving a benefit - and was sleeping on the beach.
''I thought this isn't right in this day and age ... I always will remember his lips blue with cold.''
People with mental health issues often found it difficult to get private rentals, or a flat share.
''Generally, if someone is extremely depressed, they might be crying all day, and walking the floor all night trying to keep the demons away. Who wants to flat with someone like that?''
At the centre, he asked those visiting for their ideas of ideal accommodation.
''A man at the back - who didn't want to be seen - said 'I'd have my own front door and the right to say who comes in it.''
From this comment, he and accountant Tom Simpson formed a trust with the aim of providing subsidised single-bedroom self-contained flats, each with a front door, for those with mental health issues.
He talked to then Timaru mayor Wynne Raymond, and learned Timaru District Council had two surplus old pensioner flats, which the trust obtained with donations from the council and Community Trust of Mid and South Canterbury.
After the trust opened the six flats, the South Canterbury District Health Board provided money to open more.
In March, the trust would own its 26th self-contained flat.
The tenants paid $125 a week, which included rent, power and phone, for the flats, scattered around the city.
The trust was not a mental health service, rather a supportive landlord visiting tenants once a fortnight, he said.
"We have no clinical input at all, it is purely as a landlord.''
He remembered visiting a tenant who anointed the carpet with sump oil to get rid of a taniwha.
The tenant had to be temporarily moved out while the carpet was replaced.
''A normal landlord would have him out on his ear but that is exactly what we are there for - to cope with stuff like that.''
A decade after the trust began, a research project revealed the tenants had far fewer ward admissions, and made far fewer emergency calls, when living in the accommodation.
He retired from his role as the trust manager in 2012, a role he held for six years.
He was a voluntary trustee until he left Timaru, with his wife Joyce, about six months ago to live in Green Island near their family.
Mr Fallon moved from Birmingham to Dunedin in 1974 after Arthur Barnett department store brought him over as a carpet specialist.
The warm welcome from Dunedin compelled him to repay the kindness by volunteering as a social worker in 1977.
The voluntary role became a fulltime position with Child, Youth and Family in Dunedin in 1978.
After nine years' service, he took a break from social work and bought the Tea Pot Inn in Temuka.
After the couple sold the cafe, he was approached to work at Victoria House.
''That was my first venture into mental health and I loved it.
''To me, the real heroes are those survivors of psyche illness. By survivors, I mean those who live with it and can lead a comparatively normal life. Every day they've got to battle on. They are the ones that deserve medals.''
