Joe and Fay Gock refused to accept any money after gifting their disease-resistant strain of kūmara to the nation.

At the age of 85, Fay Gock was still driving a tractor and tending to her market garden.

The woman who, with her husband Joe, is credited with saving New Zealand's kūmara, died peacefully last week after a sudden illness.

Her daughter, Jayne Gock, recalls her mother's generous spirit. Fay Gock was a "loving, caring, and giving person," with a strong desire to contribute to her community — and country.

"She was very passionate about what they grew in the way of quality," Jayne Gock said. "She tried new things, new techniques for their growing purposes. A few months before she ended up in hospital, she drove the tractor and did a couple of jobs around the garden."

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When black rot threatened to obliterate the kūmara industry in the 1950s, the Gocks gifted their disease-resistant strain to the nation, and refused to take any money for it.

It earned the couple the award of the Bledisloe Cup by Prime Minister John Key.

They had fled as child refugees from war-torn China during the occupation of large parts of the country by Japan.

Fay and husband Joe married in 1956 and started their own growing business, but government restrictions on Chinese immigrants meant they weren't permitted to own land or build a house.

Instead they lived for many years in a barn on Pukaki Rd. Over time, their business grew into the largest market garden in Mangere out of nearly 100 others.

"As a kid I still remember living in what we called the 'old house,'" said Jayne Gock. "It wasn't dirt floors or anything, it was made comfortable."

Supplied The Gock family, pictured in the 1960s.

The couple went on to lead the horticultural industry in a number of areas, including growing seedless watermelon, using under-earth heating to grow kūmara year-round and placing stickers on individual fruit - the first growers in the world to do so.

"It was their quiet contribution, I guess you could say."

A service for Fay Gock will be held at the Auckland Chinese Community Centre in Mangere Bridge, Auckland, at 11am on Friday.