Local businessman and restaurant co-owner Ross MacKillop was on Saturday laid to rest after a funeral service in Apia attended by close friends and associates.

A co-owner of the award-winning restaurant Bistro Tatau, his funeral service was held at the Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church at Palisi at 10am on Saturday morning.

His long-time business partner Bill Gunn and friend and businessman Vaughn Simpson sat next to the casket in the Catholic church with a priest leading the service. 

Close to 50 people including friends, associates and loyal customers of the restaurant attended the service. Wreaths were laid close to the casket with photos of the late Mr. MacKillop and Mr. Gunn as well as the mother of the late businessman placed atop the coffin.

Giving the eulogy at the solemn funeral service, Mr. Gunn said his late business partner was known to many present at the service, but not many knew his adventures as a young man in Australia. 

He said Ross was born in Cannes, Northern Queensland and he had passion for fishing and being a sportsman.

"As far as I know he still holds several records in cricket, hockey and football," said Mr. Gunn. "He was interested in sports, at the age of 11 he was already winning tennis, and he went on to play tennis in Wimbledon.”

The late Mr. MacKillop was a great great grandnephew of Australia’s first and only Saint in the Catholic Church, Sister Mary MacKillop, who founded the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart or the Josephite Sisters.

"Mother Mary Mackillop is Australia's only Catholic Saint," added Mr. Gunn.

According to the restaurant co-owner, it was due to Mr. MacKillop’s blood relations to the Saint, which led to his grooming at an early age by Catholic nuns to become a priest.

Mr. Gunn said his business partner went to Europe in his early 20s in a six-week journey by ship and then had to hitchhike his way back some years later when he was out of money. 

He returned to Australia and moved to a small fishing town further north of Queensland, where his management skills in a prawn factory were noticed by its owner, who then moved him to their main office in Sydney.

The late Mr. MacKillop headed the company’s seafood division, trading prawn, fish and other products across Australia. Destined for greater things, in the mid 80s he was recruited by the largest Australian conglomerate and was in charge of its international division, which was the major importing division for the company for all types of frozen foods. 

During that time he was recognised by the international community, particularly in Asia and was the first Australian to be invited by Vietnam in the 1980s. He travelled extensively in Asia due to his job as well as South Africa, South America and Canada.

In 1991 he started his own company after the collapse of the firm he worked for, though his love affair with Samoa began in the 1970s, according to Mr. Gunn, who said a close friend who was the manager of the Tusitala Hotel at the time, drew him to Samoa.

Later in the 1980s Mr. Gunn joined Mr. MacKillop on his trip to Samoa where they both decided that they would one day live in the country. 

At the conclusion of his eulogy, Mr. Gunn thanked everyone for attending his late business partner’s funeral service, and indicated that he had no plans to close the restaurant.

The Ott family organised the funeral service. The body of the late Mr. MacKillop was cremated in a private ceremony after the funeral service.