Christopher Haan 1942 – 2007
His colleagues and friends at Dartington have been shocked to learn of the sudden death of Christopher Haan on 10th March. Christopher had been unwell over Christmas and was found some time later to be suffering from diabetes and cancer of the pancreas. He died within three weeks of the diagnosis. On 13th March some thirty of us gathered on the private lawn to pay a brief tribute to him, and on 21st March Vaughan Lindsay and I represented the Trust at his funeral. The Mass was celebrated at Belmont Abbey near Hereford, where Christopher was married. It was a simple, dignified and moving ceremony, as befitted the man.
Christopher was Hereford born, and as we learned a keen and talented games player in his youth and a lifetime practical joker. As a result of injury he had to give up a promising career as a rugby player, but he retained a zest for adventure and thought nothing of family holidays in tropical rain forests. He began his career as a solicitor in general practice in Oxford, but soon gravitated to commercial law and the City, where he became a partner in Hammonds and an expert in mergers and acquisitions. Recently he retired from Hammonds to fulfil a lifetime’s ambition to found a new firm and became a partner in Firecrest Hambro, involved in major financial deals at home and abroad.
Christopher became a trustee at Dartington in September 2000 and chairman of our investment committee in 2003, where he put his great experience and network of contacts at the service of the Trust. We shall remember him for his generosity, his patience, his unassuming good manners and innate courtesy, for his quiet and effective contribution to discussion, and for his firm and wise counsel on difficult questions. We shall also remember his outrageous sweaters, bright red trousers and large cars. I had assumed that his sweaters were a reverse practical joke by his daughters. Not at all: the sweaters and trousers were his own inspiration (‘we were ashamed to be seen out with him’), as were the cars, another fashion accessory (‘he had no idea what went on under the bonnet’).
Christopher’s wife and daughters will be coming to Dartington in the summer to unveil a plaque on ‘the Haan’, the new offices at Schumacher refurbished by his generosity, and to plant a tree in his memory. We shall miss him greatly.
James Cornford March 2007
The Dartington Hall Trust is a registered charity no. 279756. Company
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