19 Facts About Phil Amos

Phillip Albert Amos was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.

Phil Amos received his education at Otorohanga District High School, later renamed as Otorohanga College.

Phil Amos attended Auckland Teachers College followed by the University of Auckland.

Phil Amos was a Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot in the Pacific in World War II.

Phil Amos had a passion for human rights and was strongly opposed to racism, in particular the apartheid system in South Africa and Rhodesia.

Phil Amos later taught at intermediate and secondary schools as well.

Phil Amos was then elected the Member of Parliament for Manurewa from 1963 defeating cabinet minister Leon Gotz.

Phil Amos was appointed Labour's education spokesperson by leader Norman Kirk while the party was in opposition.

Phil Amos found Kirk's leadership and vision inspiring and thought his death in 1974 to be a crushing blow to Labour.

Phil Amos was convicted, but the conviction was overturned on appeal by criminal defense lawyer David Lange.

Phil Amos lived in a remote part of Tanzania from 1977 to 1988.

Phil Amos then worked as a lecturer at a teachers' college before moving with his second wife, a fellow lecturer Odilia, to work a farm near her home village on the remote slopes of Mount Kilamanjaro.

Phil Amos made a living by operating a flour mill he built to serve local farmers and grew bananas, avocados, pineapple, corn, and vegetables on the one hectare plot they owned.

Phil Amos later said his "disappearance" was just an invention of the media.

Phil Amos protested by joining Jim Anderton's NewLabour Party soon after it was formed and later became president of the party.

Phil Amos told Anderton he was "devastated by the actions of the Labour Party".

Phil Amos had been admitted to hospital several times in the months before he died in Auckland on 8 June 2007 of lung failure, aged 81.

Phil Amos was survived by his first and second wives and children from both his marriages.

Phil Amos married Jill Edwina Turner in 1949, the daughter of Ross Turner, and had two sons and one daughter with her.