RIP Stephen Keir of Akubra

[Florida_Marlin]

Having worked my whole professional life in manufacturing, I have a great appreciation for a man who dedicated his life keeping a venerable old family manufacturing business going, providing excellent products and keeping his countrymen employed. I tip my Akubra to the fine gentleman and his family.

[jlee562]

RIP Mr. Keir and thanks for your work.

[tonyb]

The closer I get to 60, some one 74 seems to be a young man.

And that the truth.

Thing is, the closer I get to "retirement age," the less I have any desire to actually retire.

According to what little I've read (in the links in this thread), it seems that the recently departed Mr. Keir retired a few years back and handed the reins over to his son and namesake. Gotta wonder to what extent his health factored into that decision.

Take care of yourselves, gents (and ladies), and, while you're at it, hope that luck is on your side. And find something in this existence that brings at least some measure of satisfaction. In the case of Stephen Keir, he kept a hat manufacturing concern going (and growing, I suspect) during an era when men's hats ceased being a standard component of the average man's wardrobe. In my book, that ought to leave a person feeling he accomplished something.

[Oldsarge]

He kept the faith and we all profit thereby. Akubras off to a man and a legend.

[cookie]

STEPHEN DIXON KEIR, OAM
HAT MAKER
1938 — 25-5-2012

THE Akubra occupied a special place as authentically Australian but by the 1970s the male fashion for long hair had banished the bush hat to the backblocks of Queensland and the Northern Territory.

It was Stephen Keir who stopped it going the way of the stump jump plough.

Keir, the former managing director of Akubra, who has died, aged 74, after a long illness, was instrumental in saving his family company by choosing Kempsey on the New South Wales mid-north coast as its operations base.

The firm became one of the town's biggest employers and Keir became one of its most influential citizens.

Keir's family had been making hats for four generations. His great-grandfather, Robert Dunkerley, came from England and opened a fur-cutting factory in Glenorchy, Tasmania. In 1886 he moved to Sydney and convinced an English master hatter, Stephen Keir (I) to come out and the company won a contract to produce slouch hats for Australians fighting in the Boer War.

Family lore has it that while army officer Tom Price designed the slouch hat with the right brim turned up, it was Dunkerley who bent up the left rim after soldiers complained it got in the way while marching with rifles.

Dunkerley acquired the name ''Akubra'' - Pintjantjantjara language for ''headdress'' - after it was registered by a hat distributor, Arthur P. Stewart. During the 1920s, '30s and '40s, the golden years of hats, most of the clients were city blokes.

But that changed as the Beatles and growing car ownership turned baby boomers from hats. Belatedly, the company looked to take advantage of government decentralisation subsidies to stay in business. It sold its Sydney factory site at Waterloo in 1972 and the following year Keir settled on Kempsey, midway between Sydney and Brisbane, as the company's new home.

Born in Sydney, Keir attended primary school at Homebush before going on to Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore) with his brother Graham and, like two Stephen Keirs before him, went into the family business: he was widely known as Steve Number Three.

He met his wife, Wendy Pearson, through cousins. They had three children. Their only son is managing director and CEO of Akubra. Naturally he is known as Steve Number Four (and there is a Steve Number Five among the grandchildren).

Keir took over from his father as managing director in 1980, just as Akubra was poised for a renaissance. John Travolta's film, Urban Cowboy, had convinced blokes on the land that style was as important as keeping the sun and rain off. But the sight of mountain horsemen roaring down slopes in Michael Edgley's 1982 movie The Man From Snowy River reminded urban Australians the hat had not died but looked pretty good.

And when Greg Norman started sporting one, orders poured in for whatever style and colour the golfer chose to wear at a particular tournament.

A high point came at the 1984 Olympics when the Australian team marched into the Los Angeles athletics stadium wearing Akubras. Under Keir, Akubra's production climbed to more than 200,000 hats a year.

There was overtime galore in Kempsey, even weekend shifts.

These days, an Akubra costs about $150 and the company offers about 100 styles that sell in the bush and the city with equal alacrity.

While about 85 per cent of hats are bought in Australia, the company is now exporting to Asia with considerable markets opening in China and Tibet.

Keir steadfastly resisted the urge to move Akubra's operations offshore and opted to remain in Kempsey as an important part of the town's social and economic fabric. He served many terms as chairman of Kempsey Race Club and the Mid North Coast Racing Association.

He was also a member of the NSW Country Racing Council.

Kempsey Race Club named its June 10 race of the day in his honour and Dinky Mink, a horse part-owned by Stephen Number Four, won.

A huge crowd attended his funeral at Kempsey's All Saints Catholic Church earlier this month.

Keir is survived by his wife, Wendy, three children and seven grandchildren.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/ob...#ixzz1zi3rJZrW

http://akubra.com.au/news/?p=1297#top http://www.macleayargus.com.au/news/...r/2572018.aspx