During the Covid-19 level 4 lockdown in 2020, the Smales provided 100% rent relief to the precinct\u2019s retail and hospitality tenants, with a spokesperson saying they wanted to help businesses survive the unprecedented disruption.<\/p>\n
Smale was also known for his commitment to education, particularly through his long association with Westlake Boys High School.<\/p>\n
The school paid tribute to the former student on Facebook, describing him as \u201cone of our great Westlakers\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving spent decades involved in business education and youth entrepreneurship, Bill believed students learned best by doing. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted young people to experience the challenges, risks and rewards of starting something themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smale founded the school\u2019s entrepreneurial business programme Openground in 2022, a legacy the school said had provided students with opportunities to develop ideas and learn business skills.<\/p>\n
The scheme is credited with developing young business leaders and has now been expanded to other schools across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a man of action whose vision and generosity will continue to inspire future generations of Westlake students\u201c, the school wrote.<\/p>\n
The Westlake Boys High School alumni is credited with mentoring students in business. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Members of the school community shared heartfelt tributes in the comments, remembering Smale as a mentor and champion of young people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for being the man you were\u201d, one commenter wrote. \u201cGenerous, determined, colourful, visionary and always upbeat with a quick and cheeky wit…what a wonderful and unique human you were.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA great man, a legend. Always interested in people and encouraging others to be the best they can\u201c, another said.<\/p>\n
A celebration of Smale\u2019s life will be held on July 25 in the Westlake Boys High School auditorium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the Covid-19 level 4 lockdown in 2020, the Smales provided 100% rent relief to the precinct\u2019s retail…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18919,95,16574,6255,6179,2036,43630,2082,51611,111,43,139,529,69,54100,18484,257466,10140],"class_list":["post-518966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-aged","tag-and","tag-bill","tag-businessman","tag-died","tag-entrepreneur","tag-flow","tag-for","tag-mentor","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-philanthropist","tag-shore","tag-smale","tag-tributes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518966","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=518966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}