Blessing a plaque commemorating the man who saved his father's life was an emotional moment for Huirapa Upoko David Ellison.
Mr Ellison on Saturday blessed a plaque commemorating the work of Plunket founder Sir Truby King, which has been moved to near Karitane wharf after becoming overgrown at its old location nearby.
Mr Ellison told current and former Plunket staff and volunteers gathered for the unveiling about the event's special significance to the Ellison family.
''Without [Sir Truby], I wouldn't be here,'' he said.
This was because when his father, Thomas Mutu Rangiwahia Ellison, was born at the family's homestead at nearby Puketeraki in 1906, flu was killing many Maori babies.
But his father survived thanks to the efforts of Sir Truby, who lived in Karitane and worked with South Island Maori MP Tame Parata to improve health conditions.
''The first Plunket baby ... was my father.''
He told the Otago Daily Times that Sir Truby's influence went beyond his father's early years.
''During the Second World War, my dad was in the Maori Battalion and he got captured in the fall of Greece and spent the war in a German prisoner of war camp.
''When he [later] received the Queen's Service Medal, he said, `I have one man to thank: Sir Truby King', not only for his birth, but my dad used his ideas of ventilation and hygiene in the prisoner of war camp to help people.''
Mr Ellison was also working with Plunket to get recognition for two Maori midwives who collaborated with Sir Truby at Karitane and who delivered his father at the family homestead at nearby Puketeraki.
''One was called Mary Harper and the other one was an old lady known as Mrs Chicken.''
