Major contribution to industry

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33741, 14 January 1975, Page 12

Major contribution to industry

(.VZ, Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 13.

The Auckland industrialist and philanthropist, Sir Woolf Fisher, who collapsed and died at his Rotorua home last night at the age of 62 had been in ill health for some years.

Bom in Paraparaumu and educated at Mount Albert Grammar School, Sir Woolf made his start in industry at the age of 22 when he and Mr Maurice Paykel started the firm of Fisher and Paykel, Ltd.

Since 1934 the firm has grown from a two-man im-

porting business to a manufacturing concern with an annual turnover of more than §3O million. The leadership of a success-] ful trade mission to Australia

in 1959 led to Sir Woolf being approached by the Government to head the New Zealand Steel Investigating Company. The forerunner to New Zealand Steel, Ltd, the company proved that steel could be produced efficiently and economically from ironsands. Sir Woolf was appointed chairman of New Zealand

Steel when the company was set up in 1965. In 1960 he established an educational trust with a bequest of $160,000 to pay for travelling fellowships for headmasters and teachers from post-primary schools throughout the country. Nearly 200 teachers have benefited so far from his generosity.

A lifelong interest in horses and polo led him to establish the Ra Ora stud farm on 200 acres at East Tamaki. President of the Auckland! Racing Club at his death, Sir Woolf was well known as a breeder and jowner of many'

leading horses. He was also involved in the Outward Bound scheme, serving as president of the

trust from 1961 to 1963. Sir Woolf is survived by Lady Fisher. The Prime Minister (Mr Rowling) paid tribute today to Sir Woolf Fisher. “Sir Woolf’s outstanding contribution to industry, to the development of New'Zealand, and to many other spheres of New Zealand life, made him a respected and admired figure,” Mr Rowling said in a statement. “But it is in the development of New Zealand industry that his work will be chiefly remembered, particularly in the formation and growth of two companies— Fisher and Paykel, which he co-founded in 1934, and New Zealand Steel, Ltd. “He was one of the archi-

tects of the latter, both as member of the New Zealand Steel Investigating Company from 1960 to 1965, and as a chairman of New Zealand Steel, Ltd. “Under his enthusiastic support and guidance the company developed into a

vital industry with tremendous and continuing potential. It is perhaps appropriate that the company’s steel works bear his name. They will serve as an enduring and highly appropriate memorial to this determined and farsighted man’s life and work.”

The Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr May) said today that the death of Sir Woolf Fisher would be a great loss to the people of New Zealand.

“I had worked closely with him over the last two years as a member of the Lottery Board of Control and knew him as a most knowledgeable member of the board,” he said in a statement. “The death of Sir Woolf Fisher has robbed New Zealand of one of its most outstanding industrialists, and of a man who made great contributions to other aspects of the community life, the executive director of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation (Mr P. J. Luxford) laid.