The Team's Board Report - Mainfreight
The Team's Board Report - Mainfreight
The Team's Board Report - Mainfreight
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30<br />
Bereavement – Len Wald<br />
In April this year we at CaroTrans were all<br />
saddened to hear of the death of one of our<br />
colleagues – Len Wald. He was 81.<br />
Len had worked for us as a commissioned sales<br />
rep in New York for six years. He had decades<br />
of NVO sales experience having worked for<br />
some of the leading companies in the industry.<br />
He was one of the best dressed sales<br />
professionals with some of the most colourful<br />
ties worn, which were generally more colourful<br />
after a meal!!<br />
Len was a gentleman who came to work<br />
“booted and suited” along with the drive and<br />
determination of a man half his age.<br />
He was a compassionate and caring man who<br />
saw the good in everyone. Len was one who<br />
put more into the world than what he took out.<br />
We’ll miss Len’s smile, humour and inspiration.<br />
Bereavement – Elsie Jean Plested<br />
Bruce Plested’s mother<br />
Elsie passed away<br />
peacefully on 18 June<br />
2007, in her 91st year.<br />
Elsie was born in the<br />
Hawke’s Bay, the third<br />
of eight children. She<br />
survived the Napier<br />
earthquake, living in a tent as houses were<br />
rebuilt. When she moved to Auckland she lived<br />
on Motuihe Island in the Hauraki Gulf for 18<br />
months.<br />
Elsie trained as a seamstress and made leather<br />
Army boots for the armed forces in the Second<br />
World War. At the age of 40 she graduated as<br />
a teacher. She made all of the furniture for her<br />
first home, and painted her house, including the<br />
roof, when she was aged 60. (Bruce was kind<br />
enough to move the scaffolding at night for the<br />
next day’s labours).<br />
Her seamstress abilities extended to making her<br />
sons’ clothes and all her own hats.<br />
She travelled<br />
the world in her<br />
sixties, driving<br />
herself around<br />
England as part<br />
of the journey.<br />
A remarkably<br />
self-reliant woman<br />
with a very strong mind, Elsie lived by the<br />
sayings “you reap what you sow” and “we don’t<br />
do ostentatious in this family”.<br />
Now you know where Bruce gets his drive and<br />
passion.<br />
Elsie was a wonderful woman, whose support<br />
of her sons Bruce and Gerald also extended to<br />
the wider <strong>Mainfreight</strong> family. Many of us were<br />
fortunate enough to know Elsie in those early<br />
<strong>Mainfreight</strong> days. She will be greatly missed,<br />
and we extend the team’s sincere condolences<br />
to Bruce and the family.