David Clarke, whose two children had attended the preschool, paid tribute to Jane Foster at her retirement party on Saturday.
He said she had combined her great qualities with "hard work and determination" as she adapted to changing government regulations and curricula, fundraised, and created a "legendary" nature programme.
Whenever Mr Clarke heard of a young Arrowtowner achieving success in the world, he put much of it down to the head start they had received at the preschool, he said.
"It’s not just something in the water here ... but the magic of you and what you’ve achieved."
Mrs Foster said soon after moving to the township from Christchurch as a qualified kindergarten teacher, she got talking to a preschool committee member while walking with her baby son into the town centre.
"By the time I got to town, I had a job."
She started in 1988 when there were 17 children, attending three mornings a-week, in a former school prefab in Durham St, heated by a potbelly stove.
As its roll grew, a second campus in Cotter Ave was opened in 2010 and she transitioned from teacher to preschool manager.
Always an adherent of a nature-based approach to learning, she introduced the Reggio Emilia philosophy to the insitution about 15 years ago.
A perk of her long service at the preschool was seeing the second generation of children join, she said.
"I get a real buzz out of that, because Arrowtown still has that community feel."
She had decided to retire because she was "getting old and slowing down a bit" and the preschool was ready for fresh ideas and energy.
Although a "labour of love", the role was all-consuming, and with three sons and two grandchildren living in the wider region, she wanted to devote more time to them.
The preschool was now a fulltime enterprise with 75 children across two sites and she felt proud of what her "amazing teachers" and the parent community had achieved over 37 years, she said.
