Obituary Jack Butterworth
Life member and long-time NZTIF Board member Jack Butterworth passed away in Rotorua on 6 June 2023. Jack was a founder member of the board of NZTIF, President in 1988-1990 and accorded Life Membership in 1992.
As a leader in both NZTIF and the companies he managed Jack always had clear views and a direct approach. This proved successful with running family-owned businesses and when he was appointed Managing Director of the Fletcher company Tasman Lumber. In his latter role he was ideal in bridging the gap between the private companies and the corporates. He recognised the need for efficient sawmilling operations and he was able to persuade the Fletcher family that the future for the forestry industry should rely on investing in modern competitive processing capacity. When built, Rainbow Mountain set a new standard for the industry which led to further investments in downstream processing at Tenon and the development of the US market. He was , through his influence on Tasman Forestry, able to strongly affect the forest owner attitudes to the privately owned sawmills.
Jack’s service and contribution to the sawmilling industry in New Zealand was immeasurable. In 1983 New Zealand sawmillers faced countervailing duties in Australia. These were initiated by a very protective Australian softwood industry. We won the case but from there Jack got alongside the President of the Australian Softwood Sawmillers Association, Eric Roughana and developed a bond that turned out to be helpful in many ways including forging relationships with other Radiata pine-based timber milling industries in South Africa and Chile. During this time at Jack’s initiative NZTIF conducted successful conferences in Rarotonga and Fiji which were attended by industry representatives from Australia, South Africa and Chile. The raising of the profile of Radiata pine led to our export push into new markets in Asia and South-East Asia. Jack led a number of NZTIF missions to countries in these regions.
Jack was a very popular and exceptionally talented negotiator with an ability to bring people together for a common purpose. We acknowledge and thank Jack for his service to the sawmilling industry in New Zealand.
