William Beau Holland, Member of the New Zealand Order of merit. A grand moniker and attachment, but just plain ‘Bill' to the world.

'That's because I am actually just a reasonably normal person.”

However, William Beau Holland is a name now uttered reverently in the same breath as a top spy, a film star, an Olympic and world champion, an expressionist artist, a former university vice-chancellor and the man who drove the nation's military machine, our top soldier.

'Not many will mention me in the same breath,” says the Tauranga trust and property lawyer Bill. 'That's illustrious company and they are in a different league. They have achieved much more than me. Really!”

Well, not really, and that will become apparent.

Now, Bill has joined that pantheon of greatness – that happened when the suited trust, business and property lawyer stepped up to give his acceptance speech as the Tauranga Boys' College Old Boy of the Year on Friday, September 11.

'It is a real buzz, very humbling to be joining such alumni.”

That alumni include Sir Bruce Ferguson, former boss of the GCSB and head of defence forces, actor Sir Ian Mune, rower Mahe Drysdale, painter Nigel Brown and academic Brian Gould. Bill is in awe of them.

'Heck yes. I can't paint and although I was a rower I couldn't go as fast as Mahe and certainly not on the world stage.”

Philanthropist probably best describes Bill – but it's such a clinical word for a man with a deep social conscience, a man who given so freely of his time and wisdom for the benefit of others.

'It's that old story of making a difference. It's something most of us want to do with our lives and I have tried to do that in a range of areas.”

He was railroaded onto the college board at 28, 'not because I wanted to, but because they needed young blood.” He was made chair three years later. 'Hardly a great honour, nobody else wanted to do it.” He enjoys underselling himself.

But he stayed at it for 12 years because he was so pleased at what he had learned from the job and what the college was doing and achieving. 'Enriching”, he calls it.

'However, I realise it's down to the teacher and the administrative staff, the people literally at the chalk face, who make the difference.” But he, in his own way, was helping contribute and that suited him very well.

'It's interesting because I have been doing things for a long time.” He means things that make a difference. 'But most of it has been under the radar.”

Like the hands-on committee stuff. At the rowing club he called 'one fat lady” and 'legs 11” at the housie fundraiser. Now he's a life member and patron.

'I have given huge amounts of my time to volunteer situations over the years. But the experiences I have had and the rewards I receive in return are much greater.”

A transition into governance means Bill is now a very visible blip on the radar.

He chairs three boards. One is TECT. Another is something called the local Territorial Force Employer Support Council. A quick check of his watch and Bill explains he has a meeting of that very council in an hour, just after a doctor's visit for a 'mole map” and all the time running a very busy law practice.

His third board he has stewardship of is Community Foundations of New Zealand. His beloved Acorn Foundation fits in here. 'So successful – 230 people who are still with us have bequeathed money back to community.”

Wind the clock forward 20 years, says Bill, and it'll be a very significant funder for the community.

And he found time to be a family man, married to Sally.

'She's a very smart, highly competent and successful in her own right.” Two weeks after they met she appeared in the ‘People in Business' column of a major daily. She's now an author. And Bill was always home to have dinner with his two daughters and to tuck them up, before he went back to the office to continue making a difference.

'When I go out and do things for people I get such a huge pleasure and most of the time people don't know. It's not important and that is absolutely fine by me.”

These days there's a chink appearing in Bill's humility.

'It's ironic in the past two or three years I have received various acknowledgements.”

Various as in a Queens Birthday Honour, the MNZM. Bill had to Google it because there were so many recipients he had so little respect for, he didn't have respect for the award system.

He laughs. 'Now I have one I think it's wonderful.”

Also in the trophy cabinet a Tindall Foundation Award, the Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year, Paul Harris Rotary Fellowship and Business Hall of Fame. We are bound to have missed something.

So if Bill Holland is out of touch, it's only with a city in awe of what he has done and achieved. And his name and deeds will sit very comfortably alongside the spies, film stars and world champions – the old boys of the year that go before him.