Individual Details

Obituary

Generosity of spirit: Murray Lane, business leader and environmental campaigner.

As a member of the Lane family, Murray Lane felt he had to work twice as hard as anyone else at Lane Walker Rudkin (LWR) to avoid charges of favouritism.

He did work hard but it was for his winning personality as much as his industriousness that no barbs were fired at him, as he progressed from warehouse broom boy to marketing manager of the large Christchurch clothing company.

In his business roles and his later pursuits as a fly-fishing enthusiast and environmentalist, Lane’s warmth, insightful common sense and sincerity drew people to him.

His death in Christchurch recently, at the age of 70, was a blow to all concerned for the state of South Island rivers. For the last seven years, as a trustee and leading figure in the Water Rights Trust, Lane gave hours of service to conservation at a time of rapid expansion in dairy farming and growing alarm at the effects of irrigation and effluent discharge.

Trust chairman Murray Rodgers says Lane had ‘‘a great sense of injustice with what was happening to our waterways’’. This lay behind his attendance at nearly all Environment Canterbury (ECan) meetings in recent years, ensuring a flow of information between the council and the trust.

Rodgers says Lane discussed water issues with farmers, scientists, bureaucrats, conservationists, recreationalists and politicians, to the benefit of all. He prepared trust submissions on water-use consent applications and on ECan plans. He contributed to a wide range of advisory groups, as the trust’s representative. His mature, clear outlook on life was valued by all sides.

‘‘He was the engine room of the trust,’’ Rodgers says. But, although these activities dominated his retirement, he continued to impress all with his ‘‘sheer enjoyment of life and generosity of spirit’’.

Lane was born in Timaru and moved to Christchurch as a five-year-old. Most of his primary schooling was at Sumner, where the family made their home. He then attended St Andrew’s College, where he excelled in all sports. He left school at 17 to start work at LWR. His whole working life, of 45 years, was spent with the company.

Friendly banter with a secretary at LWR, Eileen Hooke, led to romance and marriage. They were a close couple. They had two children.

Lane’s aim at LWR was to become a sales representative. Eileen says he achieved this, with honours. His philosophy of selling was to meet the buyer’s needs, rather than the company’s. He built great trust with retail clients by his honesty and integrity. His daughter, Barbara, says he ‘‘had a strong belief in moral values and the importance of respect for others’’.

As marketing manager he led the company in expanding specialist textile lines, such as supplying the army with SAS uniforms and producing clothing items for prison inmates. Lane led research and development in this area.

In his later years with LWR he headed franchises for the firm in Superfit children’s clothing and InControl incontinence wear for the aged, leading product development and sales. A heart attack in 1999 led to his retirement at 61.

Although new to fly fishing, Lane quickly became expert when he took it up shortly before his retirement. He was active in the Canterbury Fly Fishing Club and was a committee member until his death.

Club president John Sanders says Lane was ‘‘a father figure for the club – everybody had huge respect for him’’. He says fishing led Lane to become an activist in water issues, in which his ‘‘passion’’ was inspiring to all.

Sanders says Lane’s ability to win consent from farmers for groups of anglers to cross their land was legendary.

Barbara says her father was a great family man, ‘‘always supportive and unreservedly fair’’ with his children. He loved sport and was a true Canterbury rugby supporter. He was never happier than when relaxing at the family bach by the Pareora River in South Canterbury.

Murray Bryden Lane, born Timaru, April 15, 1938; died Christchurch, June 18, 2008. Survived by wife Eileen, son Andrew, daughter Barbara and grandson Adam.