Over his 17 years as Chairman, Graham Atkin' achieved a great deal, and was known for his forward-thinking approach. Among his major achievements were Wellington's insistence to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union that it should pursue a Rugby World Cup, the first establishment of a sin-bin (1978), being a leading voice in the formation of the South Pacific Championship - which ultimately was a forerunner of the Super 12 - and of being a leading chaser of large corporate sponsorships, one of which almost got the Wellington Union thrown out of the NZRFU.
There was the union-league double-test weekend in 1990 as well, and strong pressure on the NZRFU in the early 1980s to allow former players to keep proceeds from their books.
Yes, things happened in rather different ways with Atkin at the helm, and another was the spiriting away of the Springbok test XV in 1981 from Wellington Airport and into the unlikely Athletic Park main stand "hotel" before the second test of that tumultuous year.
No one expected that, and none of the protesting mass figured out where the leading Boks had gone. So there were no midnight trumpets, no horns, no hooters, the Boks slept soundly in their beds - and ultimately won the test on the Saturday.
In the end, though, it was that stand - and more particularly its big younger brother on the other side of the ground - as well as the ground between them that defeated anything Atkin and his committee could do.
He, his extremely able deputy Eddie Tonks and the management committee could only sit and watch a persistent eating away of their funds in keeping the ageing park in reasonable shape.
They had sorted out, in 1986, plans for a redevelopment of the north end of the ground, including WRU offices and entertainment facilities, but "the crash" of 1987 blew those plans apart, and certainly those of the Wakefield Corporation which had produced them.
They had even inquired whether part of the railways yards in Wellington were available for another stadium. But at that point, Railways were not interested.
The park was regularly costing $140,000-$165,000 a year on maintenance alone through the early and mid-1980s.
Atkin says two painting firms were sent broke because they could not fulfil contracts to paint a rustproof covering of the Millard Stand.
Similarly the big stand was eating away Wellington Rugby's future. Towards the end of Atkin's reign, the union received the engineering report which said that a minimum of $2 million would have to be spent on strengthening the Millard Stand within 10 years.
And in 1991 the rent went from $15,000 a year to $98,000.
New Chief Executive Surrey Kent was hired and specifically sent down the path of finding the best way to either redevelop the park in a major way - or find another home.
That was a legacy Atkin had to leave for the next man in the chairman's job, but he had made a start.
Three years later, the union was basically broke, its assets milked away paying for the park. Professionalism and the Super 12 came at the right time for Wellington Rugby to survive, but it is hard to see whether much could have been done earlier to save it anyway.
Atkin: "There was nothing we could have done, really, except maybe get more sponsorship - and how hard was that in the time after the 1987 crash? In hindsight it was inevitable we would get into trouble.
"Yes, professionalism did save a lot of unions, but we didn't know about Super 12 and things like that in those (pre-1990) days. Sky wasn't around and neither was the big money."
Sponsorship was certainly not ignored in the Atkin era. There was the $25,000 a year Cable-Price Toyota deal which went for several years, and the famous $15,000 Broadlands deal which entailed painting the sponsor's name right across an in-goal area at Athletic Park. Television could not miss it. It almost cost Wellington dearly.
"In 1982 that was a lot of dough," Atkin said. "But there was a test coming and the NZRFU went right off their trolley. Russ Thomas was tearing his hair out, but Eddie (Tonks) and I just said no.
"Then we heard a special meeting of the NZRFU had been called for the Monday (of test week versus Australia). I guess they could have kicked us out of the NZRFU for it - certainly that was what we suspected would happen.
"So we finally agreed we should mow it out. We mowed it as low as we could, but you could still see it for 10 weeks."
Atkins grins with the recollection.
"Broadlands certainly got more than their $15,000 worth."
There were other scrapes with the NZRFU. In 1977 the lower grades in Wellington had become especially rough and the Wellington Union and referees, between themselves, decided to use a sin-bin in all grades in 1978. No-one had used one before.
"After three weeks we received the usual letter from New Zealand saying it was against the rules, so stop it. The letter asked us to let New Zealand know when we stopped it.
"So we kept going to the end of the season and then told them. The next year they started it themselves."
WRU management committee member Gerry McLean had read an article about Russia wanting rugby to be restarted at the Olympic Games.
Atkin: "He said, with soccer having its World Cup, it was clearly time for rugby to have the same. He kept at it. We discussed it at our meeting of January 21, 1982 and forwarded it to New Zealand for their thoughts - and as usual we didn't get a reply for a while.
"On March 2 they finally replied saying nothing could be done about a cup because it wasn't International Rugby Board policy. We replied and asked what was IRB policy regarding wider international play - Olympic Games, Cups etc.
"By March 16 there was no reply, same on March 30. So we wrote to New Zealand again. No reply April 13, no reply for our meeting April 27. Finally on May 18 the NZRFU replied, asking for a meeting with us."
That meeting was held on June 14, 1982, almost five months after the first Wellington approach. The possibility of a World Cup was discussed, as well as rugby at the Olympics, and an investigation into the strength of the non-IRB countries.
It seems to have started from there. Certainly Atkin is in no doubt.
"Wellington's persistence created the drive for the first World Cup. The IRB didn't want to know about it, but New Zealand took it up."
And he says that was only because Wellington forced the issue.
Atkin refuses to take much of the credit for achievements. He talks about a strong committee and especially about his partnership with Eddie Tonks.
In 1986 the pair of them were elected to the NZRFU's committee.
"Eddie and I were lucky. We just gelled. He was an accounting-numbers man and I was the outgoing kind. It was never chairman and deputy-chairman - it was US. If I was away, he would run it. If he was away, I would."
Life was always interesting when they ran the union. Secrets were few, openness was the theme.
Oh that it should be more that way today in top rugby.
If Graham Atkin left a legacy for rugby, it was that it is a sport for the common guy and woman, and they had every right to know what was going on.