Obituary Mr Tasman Smith

Press, 24 March 1988, Page 24

Obituary Mr Tasman Smith

PA , i ■ Hastings • A Hastings businessman , and benefactor, Mr Tasman Smith, has died, aged 82. ! li j’• ■!;! . J, Mr Smith was managing director i of Direct Imports, Ltd, | a company he established! after return-! ing from World War IL ! The firm and jits associated companies provided, the foundation for the, Tasman Smith ! iTrust which has' provided; hun-Ji dreds of p thousands of, dollars to charitable proj jects in Hawke’s Bay. ' > The trust established | the Mona Home for the, aged in Havelock North in: 1968, bought the $15,000] concert grand piano for, the opening of the Hastings cultural centre in I 1975, financed extensions, to the Riverbend Christian! Youth Centre and bought' a former Hastings syna-l gogue for use as a chapel' for a group of Maori, Christians.] Recently,,the trust gave $5OOO toward the Hawke’s

Bay hospice in Hastings. Mr Smith was brought up on the South Island high country sheep station of Mona Vale, the name he later used for the Havelock North rest home. ; ! ! ■■■!!: He moved to | Napier where he worked for Hawke’s Bay farmers until the 1931 earthquake. With $lOO he borrowed against . an insurance policy, Mr Smith went into partnership in an electrical firm and later branched out into his own retail electrical and music store. ! ; , In 1952 he bought an established I merchant shipping business in England and spent the next, 20 years commuting to and from New ,Zealand | — managing to avoid spending a winter ; in either hemisphere. He sold the firm and concentrated; on making Hastings the base for the expansion of ;his business interests., I During the ,1950 s his firm began ' importing

high-jquality j musical instruments such as pianos, f, |Al|ho\igti he was re; nowned as a (businessman who led' by example ,7-' always, arriving at .work by 7)30 a.m. for a 10-hour: working |i day —- Mr ! Smith’s jistrong: Christian'; beliefs (made, him a gener- ] bus benefactor in Hawke's Bay., i F ■ H ! I ill yunlike iinqst people, I realise'that you crime into! this world (with | nothing and [ we go out vyith nothing. I We, can’t) takb it! with ; us,” he once said. ;|i , Mr Smith! received (the 0.8. E. for his support of charitable groups., j [I; I,' Although (he had re-h tiifed, 'due ,to ill-health,! from the day-to-day' iTiml hips of his firm, Mr Smith; was! still a regular visitor) to' the office , and j 10 ; months ago visited a trade i [fair in'Chicago where he,secured another line, on] goods for the company to' impbrt. ; | 1 ’ h; I ,Tne: ,| charitable trust which bears his name ’will'' continue in oeroetuitv '