The funeral and remembrance service took place on December 30 of John Harris, aged 72, a well-known and respected member of the timber trade for over 50 years.
Mr Harris started with Price & Pearce in 1947 and, after a long and distinguished career with the company, joined Gordon Watts & Company Ltd in 1976. In 1990 he joined the Taylor Maxwell Timber Group in Bristol, subsequently moving to Horsham, and was a major factor in influencing Taylor Maxwell’s development of imported timber. He retired at the end of 2000 but maintained his interest in the industry.
Mr Harris was renowned for his honesty, depth of knowledge and memory for people and places. Fluent in Finnish with the help of his late wife Monica, he even managed to speak Swedish with a Finnish accent. He had a keen sense of humour and a myriad of interests, including ornithology, fly fishing and painting.
He leaves a daughter Christine, two sons, Eric and Ralph and six grandchildren and will be much missed by them as well as by colleagues in the trade.
