{"id":446503,"date":"2026-05-26T19:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T19:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/446503\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T19:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T19:18:08","slug":"ponsonby-intermediate-school-principal-nick-wilsons-wife-racheal-wilson-pays-tribute-to-her-late-husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/446503\/","title":{"rendered":"Ponsonby Intermediate School principal Nick Wilson\u2019s wife Racheal Wilson pays tribute to her late husband"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last thing he did before he left was to hug and kiss his family, as he always did, she said.<\/p>\n

\"PonsonbyPonsonby Intermediate School principal Nick Wilson died from a heart attack when he was on a fishing trip in Tinopai a week and a half ago.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, May 16, Nick was away on a fishing weekend with his father, Geoff Wilson. <\/p>\n

The stormy weather kept the pair from taking the boat out, so they stayed the night at their family holiday home in Tinopai, Northland.<\/p>\n

Racheal Wilson, 49, told the Herald her husband died shortly before going to bed.<\/p>\n

The couple met when they were young, at a pub. She was a teacher at Pak\u016branga Heights School and education became one of the many things that bound them together, she said.<\/p>\n

Racheal remembers first being drawn to his crop of corkscrew blonde curls. They hit it off immediately and he soon proposed.<\/p>\n

\"RachealRacheal and Nick Wilson, pictured when they first met. She says she was drawn to his corkscrew blonde curls. The pair went on to have a 25-year marriage.<\/p>\n

The couple married at Howick Historical Village and, a few years later, welcomed two children, Jack, now 18, and Mia, 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cNick was my world \u2013 a fun, loyal and funny husband. He was deeply committed to everyone in his life \u2013 an amazing father and brother to James. We were best friends and happy doing things together; we didn\u2019t need a lot of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe loved fishing, boating and renovating houses together. Nick loved hard; he was the calmness to my craziness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Mia, Jack and Racheal Wilson, the children and wife of Principal Nick Wilson<\/p>\n

Racheal said the children adored their father, who was always present and an \u201cA+ Dad\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always playing around with them. Sometimes we\u2019d be sitting down having a wine, and Nick would be out playing \u2018Heads down thumbs up\u2019. When Jack was little, he\u2019d take him to the beach, and they would spray paint rocks or go treasure hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RachealRacheal and Nick Wilson with their two children, Jack and Mia Wilson, when they were little. They are now 18 and 16.<\/p>\n

The popular principal\u2019s other \u201cworld\u201d was Ponsonby Intermediate. <\/p>\n

He arrived as a relieving teacher and never left. Thirty years later, the principal\u2019s death has left a huge hole in the school and wider community.<\/p>\n

When their daughter Mia turned 1, Racheal started working one day a week in the school\u2019s art room. The one day eventually grew into four at the school\u2019s learning centre.<\/p>\n

The pair kept school and home in \u201cseparate boxes\u201d, Racheal told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very close at home and distant at school. Some people didn\u2019t even know we were married,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cA teacher once said to me, \u2018Oh, you mentioned your husband was a principal \u2013 where does he work?\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RachealRacheal and Nick Wilson on their wedding day. They compartmentalised their work and private lives in a way that worked for them.<\/p>\n

Nick\u2019s younger brother, James Wilson, described him as \u201can amazing, energetic motivator\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would walk into a room, and you\u2019d feel his energy. He connected with people so easily and was genuinely interested in them. His reach was huge. He still had friends from kindergarten days,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

Racheal said her husband led with his heart. He knew the students by name and would always stop to say hello.<\/p>\n

On Thursdays, she said, he would come home from school \u201cpumped\u201d after a full day of \u201chard-out\u201d sport.<\/p>\n

News of Nick\u2019s death was announced in an email to parents<\/a> from board of trustees chairman Hamish Hopkinson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with enormous sadness that we have to inform you of the sudden and unexpected passing of our beloved principal Nick Wilson … \u201d the email said. \u201cA t\u014dtara has fallen in the great forest of T\u0101ne.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RachealRacheal Wilson said her husband Nick Wilson’s legacy is his family and Ponsonby Intermediate.<\/p>\n

Hundreds gathered to farewell him at his funeral on Friday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Through emotional tributes from family, friends and colleagues, a picture emerged of a man deeply devoted to his family, fiercely passionate about education and able to light up every room he entered.<\/p>\n

Racheal says her husband\u2019s legacy is his family and Ponsonby Intermediate. She is also immensely proud of their \u201cbrave and gorgeous\u201d children.<\/p>\n

One thing he taught her, she says, was to live each day to the full \u2013 because that\u2019s what he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had an amazing life that\u2019s been cut too short. We had so many plans to travel and go on a cruise. The good die young; it wasn\u2019t meant to be this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carolyne Meng-Yee<\/a> is an Auckland-based investigative journalist who won Best Documentary at the Voyager Media Awards. She worked for the Herald on Sunday from 2007-2011 and rejoined the Herald in 2016 after working as an award-winning current affairs producer at TVNZ\u2019s 60 Minutes, 20\/20 and Sunday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last thing he did before he left was to hug and kiss his family, as he always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[33038,51,6325,6928,13978,6179,1364,1345,10109,154910,4507,111,43,139,6933,2551,55139,1067,69,4762,20442,26890,29192,227720,4062,165,61,20838,1842,6038,6040,102],"class_list":["post-446503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-16th","tag-auckland","tag-birthday","tag-celebrating","tag-daughters","tag-died","tag-her","tag-home","tag-husband","tag-intermediate","tag-late","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nick","tag-night","tag-northcote","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-party","tag-pays","tag-ponsonby","tag-principal","tag-racheal","tag-school","tag-their","tag-to","tag-tribute","tag-wife","tag-wilson","tag-wilsons","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}