Hawke's Bay benefactor and former transport industry giant Sir Russell Pettigrew died in Napier on Friday, aged 94.
Made a Knight Bachelor in the 1983 New Year Honour's List, Sir Russell had made his name in the founding of RH Pettigrew Transport which he founded in 1944-45 and which is enshrined in the Pettigrew's Corner wall on its long-term site on the western side of the Taradale and Hyderabad Rd roundabout intersection.
His wider service is commemorated in the Pettigrew.Green Arena, to which he and wife Lady Glennis contributed $500,000 to help ensure a major and modern indoor sports facility for Hawke's Bay when it was opened in 2003 - an extension of sporting interests which included being a past-president of the Hawke's Bay and New Zealand rugby unions, and a founder of the New Zealand Rugby Foundation, formed to assist players with serious injuries.
Born at Hangatiki, north of Te Kuiti, Russell Pettigrew left school at the age of 12 to work on the family farm and came to Hawke's Bay four years later to work for Hawke's Bay Motor Company, which was formed in 1902 after a buy-out which included a general carting business run by grandfather JT Harvey, who remained as traffic manager.
The teenaged Russell Pettigrew worked for his aunt, Cherry Harvey, who became general manager in 1937.