Cilla Taylor
It is with sadness that we announce the passing of Priscilla (Cilla) Taylor, who taught our Real Estate classes for nearly 20 years. Cilla was 68 years old.
She joined Unitec in 2001 and was a dedicated teacher who helped launch the New Zealand Certificate in Real Estate course at Unitec, writing many of the course materials.
Mary Crotty taught alongside Cilla and was a close friend. Mary said Cilla had a huge, quirky sense of humour. “She was a real people person. She was skilled, clever and capable and kept in touch with many of her students. Her passing is a huge loss to the real estate industry.”
Mary said Cilla had a significant influence on the thousands of students who entered the industry after completing the Unitec course.
When surveyed, her students praised her teaching, saying she was “the best teacher in the world”, “I could never have understood the law part of it if it wasn’t for Cilla’s silly stories”, and “She speaks in words I can understand”.
The success of the Real Estate programme is testament to the quality of the course, which Cilla has been instrumental in running. There are record numbers of applications this year.
Over the past year Cilla wasn’t able to teach due to ill-health, but kept her hand in by writing supporting academic papers for qualifications for the Real Estate Authority and other real estate providers.
Outside of teaching, Cilla was also a passionate alpaca breeder who lived with Des, her partner of 34 years, on a lifestyle block in Kumeu, along with her beloved cats, dogs, geese and Highland Cattle that they bred there. She had around 250 alpaca and knew all their names and pedigrees.
A memorial for Cilla will be held on Saturday 8 August. If you’d like to attend, please contact Mary Crotty for more information: mcrotty@unitec.ac.nz. 09 8928805. Ext 8805.