The family had lived in Napier, where they survived the 1931 Napier earthquake, and Russell’s father, Jack, became one of the first 12 traffic officers in New Zealand, known colloquially as the “12 Apostles”.

There were a few more Transport Department officers nationwide by the time Russell entered the “order” in 1947, but, remarkably, he ended up driving the same V8 Ford Coupe that had been issued to his dad.

Then there was the quirk of the badge numbers. Jack was given badge No 1 and when Russell joined, he received badge No 111. When his younger brother, Ian, joined up, he was No 121.

Russell started his career in the Hutt Valley, where new traffic police did their training on the job. Speaking to Knowledge Bank, the Hawke’s Bay Digital Archive Trust, five years ago, Russell recalled the first ticket he issued, and it was to a well-known politician.

“There was this Chev car. His right-hand headlight was out and his WOF had expired… I asked the driver for his licence so I could write him a ticket and it was Bob Semple, the ex-Minister of Transport. As I was walking back to my car, this voice said, ‘Just a minute, young man’, and I thought, oh God, here it comes. ‘Do you know who I am?’, ‘Yes sir, I do’. And he said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you something, if you’d let me off, you’d be looking for a job on Monday’.”

At his next posting in New Plymouth, he was told that he was getting a motorbike – an Arial 500 – which made him the first motorcycle traffic officer in the country.

Years later, in 1991, he posed for a photograph sitting astride the Ministry of Transport’s last patrol bike before the ministry integrated with Police in 1992.

After New Plymouth, more regional postings followed in Stratford, Napier and Dargaville, by which time Russell was married to Joan and the couple had two children.

It was the offer of a job as a school travel instructor in Hastings in 1960 that set the course for the rest of Russell’s working life and the reason why he is so fondly remembered by a generation of school children as the friendly face of road policing in Hawke’s Bay.

He had to visit every classroom in every school between Hastings and Woodville, averaging 500 classes twice a year. He did that for 27 years.

When a teacher asked him the secret of his success with his pupils, Russell said: “It’s simple. I’ve got a uniform. I’ve got a black and white car with a bright red cherry on the top. It’s got a siren, and I only see them a couple of times a year.”

A monkey puppet that accompanied Russell on his trips around the region is now a fixture at the Porirua Police Museum.

Russell retired in 1987. His son, Steve, became a senior constable in Wellington and his great niece, Andrea Lee, is a PST constable based in the Hutt Valley.

Russell died on February 23 and Andrea, who says her great-uncle had an inspiring life, attended his funeral to represent Police and “pay my respects in my formal uniform”.