KEY POINTS:
Tribute is being paid all over New Zealand to Sir Angus Tait, who has died aged 88.
Sir Angus was single-handedly responsible for building an electronics industry in New Zealand, one which has generated spin-off benefits for the rest of the tech sector, in the same way Peter Jackson's film making has boosted the local movie industry.
Hopefully a few knowledgeable folks can flesh out Sir Angus' Wikipedia entry with more thorough details of his life.
In radio circles overseas, Sir Angus was regarded as a father figure. He was one of a group of men who cut their teeth working on revolutionary new radar systems during World War II and then went on to become distinguished entrepreneurs in electronics.
It wasn't an easy road - the business went into receivership in 1968, but Sir Angus turned it around and built a large international business, becoming a major exporter in the process.
This presentation I found on the web gives a flavour of the type of business Tait Electronics is involved in around the world these days.
In his later years, Tait, once called the "giant oak of our electronics industry" won respect for not selling his company to offshore parties - and he had plenty of offers.
Instead, he put his shares in the company in a charitable Trust to better preserve the company's New Zealand ownership. He was also known for putting much of Tait's profits back into research and development.
His strong views on maintaining New Zealand ownership put him at odds with the current trend in thinking in the tech sector, it's too hard to run a global business from New Zealand while keeping it 100 per cent New Zealand owned.
Critics have pointed out that Tait Electronics could well be a much bigger company with a larger global presence and greater revenues if it had moved its production to lower cost countries and brought in a strategic foreign shareholder.
But Sir Angus believed in his products and his people too much to worry about the company falling short of its potential.
That's borne out in his last message to Tait Electronics staff, sent last month.
"What makes me optimistic about the future?" Sir Angus asked.
"I know this company has a talented, committed and experienced team of people and we continue to attract new employees who are eager to make a difference.
"With this remarkable group of individuals, the Tait organisation can face the future with confidence and we can go on changing our world for the better."