A ‘mouse’, who was in every way outsized - Obituary: Tony Jelinski – Everflex Manufacturing (19/10/1945-16/03/2025)

With his son and successor at Everflex, Grant Jelinski.

Tony Jelinski – who was also known as Mighty Mouse and whose personality, friendships and business acumen were a lot bigger than the biggest mouse you have ever seen.

Due to my age of 84, I am the dinosaur of the partners of the PMC Group, of which Everflex, Tony’s sphere, was such a big part.

I was responsible for getting Tony to join our organisation. As usual with him, it was not easy right from the beginning. It was a see-saw battle of him coming and then changing his mind a number of times, but I never regretted my decision to get him on board.

He was undoubtedly the best specialist in this field in South Africa, and certainly brought the company to be number one very quickly through his immense technical knowledge of the shoe industry and his dedication to hard work.

He gained the confidence of our German supplier for this range of products very quickly, and ultimately, they stopped sending a consultant once a year. He also succeeded in introducing new products very quickly into the whole of South Africa.

Being German, I lacked a certain knowledge of the English language, but Tony found many opportunities to increase my fount of expletives which quite often were not appreciated by the person he was addressing. But deep down, he had a heart of gold and was always willing to offer a helping hand.

He loved the sea very much, and some of you might have enjoyed a boat trip or two with him as the skipper for fishing or diving. Fortunately, the Good Lord kept a special eye on him and gave him a second chance at life after a diving episode that went badly wrong. For those who knew him then, they will remember that he had a true, live, guardian angel right next to him on that day.

In later life, he was an enthusiastic racehorse owner.

Hunting was a passion.

Nature also called in another way, namely hunting, and many a tale circulated in our trade about his marksmanship. Through that, we once were treated at the office to a spit braai, not of lamb but of wild boar, the most delicious meat I have ever eaten at a braai.

On a very personal note, Tony agreed to be the Master of Ceremonies at our wedding at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1995, and again he excelled and showed off his oratory skills. I can still remember him dancing with my mother who had flown out specially from Germany.

He was stone cold sober the whole evening, but some Tokoloshe must have come during the night and tempted him to clear the whole minibar. The effect of which we found out the next morning at breakfast on the terrace when all he asked for was a glass of milk!

As a prelude to our wedding, Jeanne and I had lunch with him a few days before at Joop’s, in order to touch up the finer details. It became an argument between me and him like and old married couple. I was driving a VW bus at that time due to having dogs and 2 grown sons with bicycles. Jeanne happily agreed to travel to the church in this bus, which Tony found to be a hideous idea. The nett result of this argument was that he secretly ordered a white stretch limousine to chauffeur Jeanne and her mom to and from the church.
We were so looking forward to celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in July this year with Tony, just short of him reaching the 80 club, but unfortunately it was not to be.

Tony, your colourful character left a mark on many people. I thank you for all you have done and achieved. Despite the fact that our friendship became slightly distant once I retired, I am truly grateful that you were so much a very big and important part of my life. Rest in peace, terrific friend and colleague.

Tony Jelinski died of a heart attack on 16 March, 6 months before his 80th birthday. He was married to Marion, with whom he had Greg and Carla, and he had a grandchild, Maya. He also leaves his partner, Denise. 

Tony Jelinski was a very active man, taking part in the Dusi Canoe Marathon, the Comrades Marathon, and the Argus Cycle Tour on many occasions. He also played and later coached rugby.