12 Facts About Ken Comber

Kenneth Mark Comber was a New Zealand politician of the National Party, and an accountant.

Ken Comber received his education at St Joseph's Convent, New Plymouth Boys' High School, and Victoria University.

Ken Comber married Diane Holyoake, a daughter of Sir Keith Holyoake, in 1966, and they had three children together.

Ken Comber was a senior rugby player, representing North Island Universities as a student, and was later a member of the Wellington Rugby Football Union's management committee.

Ken Comber trained as an accountant and was chief accountant for National Electric, and then general manager of John H Walker and Co.

Ken Comber felt his father-in-law hadn't given him much chance of beating local lawyer Barry Brill for the candidacy, but he prevailed.

Ken Comber represented the Wellington Central electorate in Parliament from 1972 to 1981, when he was defeated by Labour's Fran Wilde.

In 1977, Ken Comber was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal, and in 1990 he received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.

In 1997 he was replaced by Roger Estall and Ken Comber publicly opposed the appointment of Estall as his successor.

Ken Comber went as far as to resign from the National Party, to which he had belonged for 30 years, in protest calling the party "morally bankrupt" and glad that Holyoake was not alive to see the state of his old party.

Ken Comber said his disillusionment with National started in 1991, when it reneged on its pledge to scrap the superannuation surcharge, but was disappointed by Prime Minister Jim Bolger's decision not to fully endorse Mark Thomas, National's Wellington Central candidate at the 1996 election.

Ken Comber died of cancer in Wellington on 6 December 1998, survived by his wife, two daughters and son.