When Pat Benson returned to Hawke's Bay after dabbling in accountancy at Canterbury University in the late 1970s, he wouldn't have known art deco if he fell over it.
Thus, a quarter-century later he is a little bemused that he is being recognised with a Queen's Service Medal in the New Year Honours for helping protect Napier's unique architectural heritage.
A Hastings and Haumoana lad who's achieved most of his fame and fortune in an equally unique mix of fields, and mainly in Napier, he had thought little of the history of the buildings until he and brothers John and Jim bought the building next to where they'd established Napier Computer Systems in the early 1980s.
"As we pulled it apart we started finding all these things," he said at his Fernhill home. "The architect made us aware of our responsibilities with the architecture."
It was about 20 years later that he made the most significant purchase of a Napier building under threat of demolition - the Daily Telegraph building in Tennyson St.