A very talented man who tried his hand at many things, some successfully, some not, but he did live a full life
Obituary: Peter Howard – King Tanning, Pelts Products, and others (01/06/1947-26/07/2022)
Prepared with the assistance of his son, Grant Howard.
Peter Howard during his King Tanning days
Port Elizabeth, E. Cape, SA – Peter Howard, production manager at Pelts Products in the 1990s, died in July last year, aged 75.
The son of former King Tanning sales director Fred Howard, he was born and raised in King William’s Town and did his entire schooling at Dale Primary and Dale College, matriculating in 1964.
He initially planned to do medicine, and spent 4 years at the University of Cape Town, but in 1967 he joined Eddels Shoes in Pietermaritzburg as a management trainee. In 1971, he joined Bata SA in sales.
He and Swiss immigrant Erwin Metzger started their own footwear factory, Metzger Footwear, in King, in 1972, but it closed in 1975.
He joined King Tanning as production manager in 1975, and stayed there until 1983. A change in career path followed when he joined Aloe Office Machines for a couple of years, and then another couple of years as assistant buyer at Consolidated Fine Spinners.
Then he went back into tanning, first as factory manager at Silverton Tannery, in Pretoria, from 1988-90, and then as factory manager at Pelts Products, Port Elizabeth, from 1990-2000.
His achievements there included designing and implementing an incineration plant for tannery sludge.
As a farmer in the early 2000s.
In 1998 he bought a farm outside Port Elizabeth, and a couple of years later he left tanning for the last time to become a farmer with a sheep feedlot and later opened a guest house on the farm.
His father and mother-in-law moved onto the farm as well, and his father died in 2004.
In December 2008 he sold the farm and lodge and moved to Port Alfred to run the Greenfountain Farm Resort.
He married twice, to Thea in 1968, with whom he had Janine, Michele and Grant, and to Cathy in 1988, with whom he had Jessica and John, and he had 8 grandchildren.
He was a good squash player in his younger days and a good lawn bowler in his later years. He was a fine actor having featured prominently in many school and Kaffrarian Amateur Music and Dramatic Society (KAMADS) productions. He was extremely well read.
Brian Blumrick, whose time at King Tanning overlapped with Peter’s, remembers him as a very good sportsman, who could also “debate the hind leg off a donkey – he should have been a lawyer”.
Alastair MacGregor, retired former MD of machinery supplier Colin D. Bailey, first met Peter after he had started at King Tanning. “For a couple of years, we had a normal supplier/customer relationship which developed into friendship. When he left the tannery to start a shoe making firm based in King our business relationship continued and his company seemed to get off to a fair start. Sadly, it was to flounder.
“I really only got to see him regularly again when he arrived at the then new C.P.C. plant. We had a very good working relationship, and I always enjoyed the conversations we had.”
Retired former chemical representative Ken Moakes wrote: “As a chemical rep, I was always met and treated with great courtesy. He was always interested in how the leather industry was faring. He was missed the minute he left the industry.”
Which probably sums up the tanning industry’s attitude to him.
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