Obituary
Yee Fong
19 April 1958 – 22 May 2021
I can’t remember the first time I met Yee, but it must have been roughly 20 years ago. There was the matter of distance, with him living in Auckland and myself in Wellington.
Our friendship stepped up in 2008 when he hosted the first ever NZ Pincade festival.
On that first occasion it was just run on Saturday at his home and another collector Willie’s home who lived a block away. There was a Friday night at Hamish’s for the people from out of town.
Both Yee and Willie had wonderful pinball collections.
Yee was particularly strong on video arcade machines as well as pinball. He had a range of the dedicated imported cabinets, which he chose to keep in their original format - not multi-gaming them, which was a trend at the time.
Run over the first weekend in March, and since approx 2012 also alternating between Christchurch and Wellington for the add-on Thursday/Friday.
When we met at his home, Yee used to employ his children to provide the hospitality. Topping up drinks and food bowls, and helping everything to run smoothly. It was a high point of the weekend, with speeches and spot prizes given out to many.
Yee also used to coordinate a whole range of great Pincade merchandise, and I see the tee shirts and hoodies being worn by fans all over the world.
The annual event grew and grew in popularity. We generally had 25-30 Australians coming over, as well as a few from further afield such as the United States and Europe. Hundreds of Kiwis.
Pincade ran right up until last year, 2020. There were thoughts of even hosting this year, but with covid-19 denying the international visitors it was decided to cancel. Also Yee’s health was up and down. He had been battling cancer for the past few years, and for a while there it was thought he had beaten the illness. Things were looking good.
Yee was our humble hero. He was always generous and inclusive, doing his best to make the event fun for all.
Not only with his pinball community, his work peers at Air New Zealand held him in very high regard too. He had been there since he was 17, starting an apprenticeship in avionics engineering, with a career stretching an impressive 44 years. It was his workmates that gave him the nickname Rocky. For his tenacity in standing up for what he believed.
Fly high my friend.
Yee is survived by his wife Pamela, and children Hazel, Megan and Reuben.
For an audio interview that I did with Yee when he was in good health, June 2019, please check out Episode 4 on my podcast page.
