Richard Frank ELWORTHY [2637]

  General Notes:

Richard is Managing Director, Pyne Gould Guinness Christchurch NZ (1999).

Obituary
Richard Frank Elworthy.
16 July 1945 - 4 August 2011
Director Who Took PGC Through Great Change.
After six years of living with cancer, Richard Elworthy died recently, at the age of 66. Through the 1990s and early 2000s Elworthy steered Pyne Gould Corporation (PGC) through a period of significant change. He became recognised as one of Canterbury's most capable and influential business leaders.
Family members say his death was a shock. He believed his cancer was a thing to be beaten. If it could not be beaten, he should not burden others with that knowledge. The first indications of the disease prompted Elworthy's retirement in 2005, after 14 years as managing director of PGC. He had earlier served as chairman and managing director of PGC subsidiary Pyne Gould Guinness (PGG) a major Canterbury farm services company.
Elworthy grew up on the family farm on the hills above Sumner. In a family of six he was the second of three brothers. He was educated at Waihi School and Christ's College, where he attained high academic success and made many lifelong friends.
A life spent working indoors was not a natural step for Elworthy, coming as he did from a family farming and outdoors tradition. So it was with some initial reluctance that he set his course, attending Canterbury University and graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1967. He then joined BGG in a clerical position.
He married Annabel Wigley, daughter of the redoubtable Harry Wigley of Mount Cook tourism fame, in 1969. The couple then headed overseas. Elworthy worked in London for two years before they returned to Christchurch and raised their family of three children.
He rejoined PGG in 1971, in a financial services role with the wool and stock department. In the following years he became widely known and respected in the business world and progressed to the position of financial controller. This role made him a central figure in planning the restructuring of the business, including the establishment of PGC as the "umbrella" company in 1987. By then he had made the unusual step to managing director while being chairman of the board, of PGG.
Elworthy was made managing director of PGC in 1991. He led the company through a dynamic decade of change and growth. He oversaw the formulation of nationwide financial services division Marac, through the acquisition of Allied Finance. He achieved the mergers of PGG with Reid Farmers and Wrightson's, respectively, and the acquisition of Perpetual Trust from AMP. He was involved in the listing of PGC on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.
He was admired for his commercial acumen, eye for detail and chairmanship skills. He was always thoroughly prepared, inclusive and decisive. The loss and suffering of many colleagues and friends in the collapse of the PGC building during the February earthquake had a huge impact on him. PGC chairman Sam Maling says Elworthy was "very much in control of the expansion and redirection of the business" from 1991 to 2005. He remained on the board of PGC after his retirement, until standing down in 2009. The need for further reshaping of the business was not being considered in 2005 and had no influence on Elworthy retirement. His health was "definitely the catalyst", Maling says. He was a determined character and a man of integrity. He was diligent and very able, Maling says.
Elworthy enthusiastically performed the role of honorary Consul for Sweden in Christchurch, for fifteen years until 2009. He saw this interest, away from business, as a welcome challenge. In retirement Elworthy held non-executive directorships with passion and dedication. He drew satisfaction from working with the Hohepa Charitable Trust And Human Ware Limited. His most enduring legacy was his service to St George's Hospital, described by Hospital Society president Craufurd Murray as "over many years, a wonderful contribution". He served on the advisory committee for four years from its establishment in 1999 and was a board member from 2003 he was appointed chairman of the Cancer Institute Trustees Ltd board at its first meeting in 2008. With fellow board members, Elworthy raised funds to establish and equip the Cancer Care Centre at St George's Hospital. Oncologist Chris Wynne said of Elworthy's service: "every time a patient is treated and painful symptoms relieved, every time a family's concern and stress is eased, every time a patient is cured, we will remember Richard's contribution to the well-being of others."
His many interests included golf, skiing, sailing and travel, duck shooting in flyfishing. But it was his family and especially his grandchildren, who gave him the determination to overcome his condition during the past rewarding six years.
Ref: The Press Christchurch 27 August 2011.

Richard married Living