I'm not sure if Peter Barnes will ever be a contender for the Port of Napier Hawke's Bay Business Hall of Fame.
After all, he ran just one shop - Barnes Bakery on Tomoana Rd in the Hastings suburb of Mahora.
But what a business that was from the mid-1960s to the
mid-1980s.
It's true that location played a part in its success. Situated in a thriving shopping centre, it basked in the halcyon days of industry and within a kilometre radius were the Tomoana freezing works, Wattie's, Birdseye and The Apple and Pear Board.
That said, Barnes Bakery was built on reputation.
My mother worked for another Mahora identity, Cyril Greer, in the drapery shop on the corner of Tomoana Rd and Frederick St in the 1970s. And I remember her bringing home, on occasion, an afternoon sweet.
The chocolate eclair - real chocolate icing, soft shell - was my favourite, and to this day I don't eat them any other way.
When I worked at Tomoana in the mid-1980s I remember walking down to the bakery to get lunch. Barnes quality was always worth the effort.
I never saw Peter Barnes, wouldn't know him from a bar of soap. But he was one of those businessmen people talked about.
I once heard a rumour that the day's leftovers made their way down to the Little Sisters of the Poor in Wolseley St to cheer the old folk - and, I bet, the staff.
When a new subdivision went in off Caroline Rd, Peter's family moved there. The socialist sensibilities of us lifetime Caroline Roaders were not stirred - he was a working man and he deserved his success, we reckoned.
I saw his death notice yesterday and immediately made the connection. Reading between the lines, it looked like family life had gone well.
He was surely an astute businessman. And a maker of some of the yummiest, scrummiest bakery food I've ever eaten. That's Hall of Fame in my book.
