Club Member Jeff Lee: “Looking Forward”
By his own admission Jeff is the 4th oldest member of Port Nicholson Rotary. This doesn’t seem right given his youthful looks! Entitling his presentation this morning as ‘Looking Forward’ he felt he wanted to explore what his future holds rather than dwelling on the past. I was hoping to hear the story behind the gumboot line-up at every auction, which is more about the past. This was explained later – thank you Jeff.
Jeff has calculated his life expectancy as being anywhere between 88 and 92 and given he retired in 2001 – he estimated he would have to finance his retirement for at least 30 years! Not sure that my maths is up to this … rather daunting.
Having spent 42 years working for Bata, he regards his boss Thomas Bata, the son of the founder, as an inspirational leader. His job took him to various parts of the globe and he eventually arrived in New Zealand with his wife and family in 1980. They decided to put their roots down.
Family is of paramount importance to Jeff and he regards spending quality time together annually as top priority. His mantra – if you can call it that – is long-term future encouragement. He maintains contact with his wider family who are all offshore and is committed to keeping the younger family members in touch with family and family history.
Jeff has written and published two volumes of his family history. He passed the impressive looking books around and suggested to members they should consider writing their own histories for the generations to come.
He joined Rotary in 2001-2002. Committed to community work, Jeff volunteers at the Wellington City Mission, the Royal School of Music, and Ed Aid. He has an ongoing interest in education, particularly in developing countries, using New Zealand’s special advantages. Ten years ago he helped build a school in Tanzania – his work in building other schools continues.
Jeff’s association with Bata did not stop at retirement – hence the gumboots – he holds a non-executive directorship and still travel to Kenya and the Congo on their behalf. He is proud that Bata is still manufacturing gumboots saying that Bata has the edge over China with excellence and cost. Their main focus is in industrial gumboots where they hold the market niche.
Thank you Jeff – it was a real pleasure to have you share your life and work with us.
Ros Fogel
Club Reporter.
.JPG)
.
.jpg)
