Exposed to wind, rain and cold, Mr Kurene stayed on top of the building site communicating with a young worker for more than two hours that day, persuading him to climb down.
When police arrived, Mr Kurene continued to take a lead role in negotiations until the worker, who had suffered a psychotic episode, eventually climbed to safety.
Southern District Commander Superintendent Andrew Coster said had it not been for Mr Kurene's bravery, level-headedness and perseverance, it was highly likely the young worker would have taken his own life by jumping from the structure.
Yesterday, Mr Kurene was presented with a New Zealand Police certificate of appreciation by Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher and Senior Sergeant Jason McCoy.
Mr Kurene, of Palmerston North, who has been a supervisor at the Glenavy milk treatment building site since last October, said he had taken the man to the site that day.
When he could not see him at work, he started looking for him and saw him on a small piece of reinforcing steel poking from the side of the building.
With a variety of obstacles at the building site, there was no way the young man could have been pulled to safety - the only way he was going to come down was if he jumped, with no chance of survival, or if he climbed to safety on his own terms.
For two hours Mr Kurene continually talked to the young man, despite his refusal to engage in conversation.
''It was the longest two hours of my life,'' Mr Kurene said.
''I just kept talking to him, tried to get him to have a smoke, just remembered anything that people said on TV in those situations.''
When the young man eventually decided to climb down, Mr Kurene said he felt a huge sense of relief.
Mr Kurene paid tribute to the support of Senior Constable Stuart Dowling, Sergeant Blair Wilkinson and the construction team on site during the emergency.
He said receiving an award was nice, but ''out of it; strange''.
Mr Kircher thanked Mr Kurene for his efforts in saving the life of a young Oamaru man ''with a lot of potential''.
''The good thing is, he's still around and he's actually got the help he needed to get past that stuff - thank you very much from the community for that,'' Mr Kircher said.
Sgt Wilkinson said it was ''very lucky for him that John had the presence of mind and the ability to stay up there and keep talking to him ... I have the utmost respect for the way [he] handled the situation.''
Mr Kurene's work in the Waitaki district finished yesterday and he is now bound for a building site in Christchurch.
