For many, dreams of early retirement might be dominated by visions of a sunny golf course or a sandy beach.
Not so for Peter King, who has been appointed today as an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to international development and humanitarian aid organisations, and to the community.
After a distinguished career in management with Dutch company Van Leer, Mr King was 58, and CEO of the John Fairfax Group at the time he and his wife Pat made the early retirement decision.
"My wife and I decided to take early retirement because we just believed that we'd been really blessed " God had been very good to us as a family," Mr King says.
"We're not wealthy by any manner of means, but we worked out that we had enough and rather than saying "let's accumulate more wealth', why don't we give back what we've learnt by way of expertise?'.”
What followed was 15 years of ground-breaking leadership as director of Opportunity International Australia (1995-2004), and USA (2002-2008), in which Mr King worked with a small team to form a network uniting 42 support and implementing partners around the world.
"We made it into a partnership where partners are accountable to each other, and it became much more of a dynamic unit, in the sense that you can have common services, IT and strategy," he says.
"Then we formed the international board. And at that point, it's just amazing how Opportunity International has taken off."
Opportunity International, an organisation dedicated to lifting people out of poverty by giving them loans to start their own businesses, has grown from 80,000 loans at the birth of the network to almost two million loans today.
The organisation has now set up community banks so that people can deposit their money, as well as life and crop insurance and edufinance, where entrepreneurs start their own schools.
"So many of these things are all interrelated. If you look at a whole community overseas, micro-enterprise is one part of their needs but also education, because there's no point in having people with the ability to make money but who are totally uneducated etc. And so you also need water, you need good agriculture, you need all these things,” Mr King says.
Mr King was asked by OI to contribute to this work as he had already undertaken similar restructuring work with World Vision in his roles as international board member and chair of World Vision Australia from 1995 to 2007.
African homeland gets helping hand
In his current work as member on the national council of Christian Schools Australia and on the board of Northern Beaches Christian School (NBCS), Mr King continues a close association with Opportunity International and World Vision.
He is hoping to use the findings of the NBCS " which researches best practice in education in Australia and overseas through the Sydney Centre of Innovative Learning " to help schools in Africa which are being funded by Opportunity International
Mr King recalls his own childhood as one of four boys in a single-parent family growing up in South Africa, Zimbabwe and later Zambia.
"I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth" so I kind of appreciate what families go through when they have financial needs."
As he receives the honour today, he says he is in awe of others in the world fighting poverty who he says also deserve medals.
"I feel obviously very honoured and very humbled " I realise that people on the front line also need awards, and in a way we really respect even the poor, who we work with together to lift them out of poverty," he says.
In all of this too, Mr King, who with his wife attends Christ Church, St Ives, says a spiritual journey should be "part of our life 24 hours a day".
"Jesus came to introduce and bring about the kingdom of God " he kept saying that. Not just to make a Christian who goes to church on a Sunday," he says.
As his travelling commitments "ease off", Mr King is looking forward to becoming "much more involved" with Christ Church.
He and Pat, and their three daughters, decided to make Australia their home after his job with Van Leer took them from South Africa to the Netherlands and then to England before he was given the post of managing director for Australasia in 1982.
"That was when we said "where do we come from?' because we'd been in so many different countries, and we said" "we're becoming Australians', and we're fairly passionate Australians," he smiles.
Other Sydney Anglicans honoured
The Rev Glenn Gardner, who has held various administrative positions in the Sydney Diocese, has been appointed Member of the Order of Australia for his service to people with disabilities in his executive roles, particularly with the Northcott Society.
Also receiving this honour is associate professor Michael Horsburgh, for his service to the community through the Anglican Church, and also through theological and social welfare education.
Mrs Judith Lewis, of St Paul’s, Riverstone, was awarded Medal of the Order of Australia for her educational roles, including Scripture teaching, and for producing a church history for the Riverstone and District Historical Society.
Also receiving this award was Mr Bruce Ruston of St Anne’s Strathfield, for community service, especially through Rotary International and The Salvation Army, and to the sign writing industry.
All Saints’, Balgowlah member Mrs Anne Smith was also awarded the medal for her service to youth through the Guiding movement.
Other medal recipients include Mrs Janis Duffy, clinic manager at Anglican Retirement Villages, Castle Hill for her service through aged care and sporting organisations, and Mr Neil Inall, former council member of Trinity Grammar School, for his service to farming and the rural sector.
Also honoured with a medal was Mr Philip Handel of HolyTrinity, Beacon Hill for his service to the visual arts using stained glass.
Dr Ian Francis of St Paul’s, Chatswood was awarded a Medal in the General Division for his service to medicine as an ophthalmologist.
