Andrew Critchley's Blog - Posts Tagged "a-special-man"
Tribute to my father
In his later years my father was very supportive in every sense of my decision to ‘give up the day job’ and pursue my dreams as a writer.
On a day where on the Goodreads’ site ‘Dublin in the Rain’ approaches 2,000 people adding it to their ‘to read’ list and where the book is currently in the top 15 (out of over 1000) Giveaways on the site, it seems appropriate to share my tribute to him that I gave at his funeral last week.
Some of you who were at the funeral will have seen or heard this already.
It was very consoling that the people who knew him felt that it captured the essence of who he was.
I’d certainly like to think so.
Thanks, Dad!
-----------------------------------------
To thy own self be true.
When I finally started work in 1985 that was the career advice from an experienced colleague as part of my induction training. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that my own father had been the living embodiment of those words all his life.
My father was a special man. Yes, he was an intelligent man - undeniably so. But as he once so memorably said to me in my early 20’s – “talent and intelligence is not an excuse, Andrew.” I smiled then and I smile now when I think of his words - that and his immortal comment that “philosophy doesn’t get the washing up done.”
What made my father special were so many other things besides intelligence.
A fierce determination to make the best of himself and his life – a determination not to allow all the old school tie and red brick prejudices and snobbery that were so rife in society on the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s to be any barrier to what he wanted to achieve in life.
He had an undeniable pride – both in who he was and where he was from – coupled with a burning and driving ambition to succeed. That and an enormous, almost insatiable appetite for hard work that came from the sheer love of what he did. Life is too short to not enjoy what we do to generate an income and he lived and enjoyed work to the full.
Those attributes – determination, pride, ambition, commitment, hard work – took him to the top of his profession in both the private sector, as a Director of EMI, as well as the public sector, as undersecretary of state for the Health Service. They also brought him much deserved peer respect as President of the Institute of Purchasing and Supply.
However that burning and driving ambition was never at the expense of ethics, integrity and honesty. There was never to be any compromise on those issues – even it meant that he needed to change jobs in life because of it.
Compromise was simply not a word that existed in his vocabulary.
Uncompromising and although at times tough, he was always fair.
On his desk at home for many years were the words ‘I may not always be right, but I am never wrong’. Like all the best humour, it was wonderfully self-effacing and with a lovely element of truth.
Along with the skills that brought him success in a business career that spanned five decades, goodness he even brought some credibility to the much maligned Timeshare in his later career, were the attributes that I’m sure many of you of have come today will remember him for - a sense of fun, kindness, generosity of spirit, loyalty. He genuinely cared about people, had time for people, made time for people – whether they be colleagues, associates, friends, family or extended family.
Above all, there was a glorious sense of classlessness about my father that I remember with enormous fondness. Unaffected by colour, creed or background – he was always the same person irrespective of who he was dealing with or talking to. It didn’t matter whether it was heads of Industry, successful entrepreneurs or senior Government personnel in his business life or with friends and family in his private life.
He was always the same Tom Critchley – even, say, when he was talking to complete strangers on a football terrace.
It was a classlessness that gave him such class as a person himself and together with the determination, pride, ambition, ethics, integrity, loyalty honesty, humour, warmth and kindness, it was what made him such a special man – a very special colleague, friend, family member, father and husband. A genuine man of substance.
To thy own self be true indeed.
He was, always.
He even put together a few words for today himself, with which I’ll finish,
“It’s not the words, they are but few,
It’s love and memories we keep of you,
A quiet thought, a hidden tear,
A constant wish that you were here.”
Tom Critchley, 17th August 1928 - 14th April 2014
On a day where on the Goodreads’ site ‘Dublin in the Rain’ approaches 2,000 people adding it to their ‘to read’ list and where the book is currently in the top 15 (out of over 1000) Giveaways on the site, it seems appropriate to share my tribute to him that I gave at his funeral last week.
Some of you who were at the funeral will have seen or heard this already.
It was very consoling that the people who knew him felt that it captured the essence of who he was.
I’d certainly like to think so.
Thanks, Dad!
-----------------------------------------
To thy own self be true.
When I finally started work in 1985 that was the career advice from an experienced colleague as part of my induction training. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that my own father had been the living embodiment of those words all his life.
My father was a special man. Yes, he was an intelligent man - undeniably so. But as he once so memorably said to me in my early 20’s – “talent and intelligence is not an excuse, Andrew.” I smiled then and I smile now when I think of his words - that and his immortal comment that “philosophy doesn’t get the washing up done.”
What made my father special were so many other things besides intelligence.
A fierce determination to make the best of himself and his life – a determination not to allow all the old school tie and red brick prejudices and snobbery that were so rife in society on the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s to be any barrier to what he wanted to achieve in life.
He had an undeniable pride – both in who he was and where he was from – coupled with a burning and driving ambition to succeed. That and an enormous, almost insatiable appetite for hard work that came from the sheer love of what he did. Life is too short to not enjoy what we do to generate an income and he lived and enjoyed work to the full.
Those attributes – determination, pride, ambition, commitment, hard work – took him to the top of his profession in both the private sector, as a Director of EMI, as well as the public sector, as undersecretary of state for the Health Service. They also brought him much deserved peer respect as President of the Institute of Purchasing and Supply.
However that burning and driving ambition was never at the expense of ethics, integrity and honesty. There was never to be any compromise on those issues – even it meant that he needed to change jobs in life because of it.
Compromise was simply not a word that existed in his vocabulary.
Uncompromising and although at times tough, he was always fair.
On his desk at home for many years were the words ‘I may not always be right, but I am never wrong’. Like all the best humour, it was wonderfully self-effacing and with a lovely element of truth.
Along with the skills that brought him success in a business career that spanned five decades, goodness he even brought some credibility to the much maligned Timeshare in his later career, were the attributes that I’m sure many of you of have come today will remember him for - a sense of fun, kindness, generosity of spirit, loyalty. He genuinely cared about people, had time for people, made time for people – whether they be colleagues, associates, friends, family or extended family.
Above all, there was a glorious sense of classlessness about my father that I remember with enormous fondness. Unaffected by colour, creed or background – he was always the same person irrespective of who he was dealing with or talking to. It didn’t matter whether it was heads of Industry, successful entrepreneurs or senior Government personnel in his business life or with friends and family in his private life.
He was always the same Tom Critchley – even, say, when he was talking to complete strangers on a football terrace.
It was a classlessness that gave him such class as a person himself and together with the determination, pride, ambition, ethics, integrity, loyalty honesty, humour, warmth and kindness, it was what made him such a special man – a very special colleague, friend, family member, father and husband. A genuine man of substance.
To thy own self be true indeed.
He was, always.
He even put together a few words for today himself, with which I’ll finish,
“It’s not the words, they are but few,
It’s love and memories we keep of you,
A quiet thought, a hidden tear,
A constant wish that you were here.”
Tom Critchley, 17th August 1928 - 14th April 2014
