Roy Dunn joined the Mongrel Mob when he was 13. He later went on to found the Notorious chapter in the South Auckland suburb of Mangere.
Dunn died of natural causes in Paeroa yesterday. His funeral will be held in Mangere tomorrow.
It was understood Dunn had suffered ill health in the months before his death.
Dunn's Mongrel Mob Notorious chapter recruited the toughest, most feared gang members from other Mob chapters around the country.
But he later turned the chapter towards honest work. In 2005, he started a labour hire business called Rent A Bro to do painting, demolition and other work. The same year, Dunn co-founded Te Ara Tika o te Whanau Trust.
"We are setting this up for our kids, creating the employment, bringing them in," he told the Herald at the time.
The trust teamed up with the Salvation Army to organise a series of live-in P treatment programmes for gang members. One such reintegration programme was run from the historic Massey Homestead - where Dunn's funeral will be held tomorrow.
The programme was given a $1 million grant over two and a half years from Prime Minister John Key's action plan on methamphetamine, launched in 2009.
The Salvation Army expressed its sorrow at Dunn's loss yesterday.
"It is with great sorrow that we pay tribute to Roy Dunn, a visionary like Moses intent on leading his people into the Promised Land. For Roy, that Promised Land was a better life for gang members and their whanau - a life free from addiction and prison," the church said on Facebook.
"Our prayers are with Roy's wife Kerry and whanau at this time."
