Peter Morris, former Picon chairman and long-time Picon council member, died on New Year’s day.
Morris spent his whole working life in the printing industry until his retirement last September. Starting as a teenager in the finishing department of a Birmingham printer in 1962, he joined finishing equipment supplier Oscar Friedheim in 1971, left after a few years to start his own trade finishers, but eventually returned to the company and became managing director in 1999. He was part of a management buyout team in 2005, after which he became CEO.
Having joined the Picon council in 2006 Morris became chairman in 2011. An enthusiastic advocate of the disparate print industry’s need to speak with a united voice, he used his two-year term to drive the creation of the Graphics, Print and Media Alliance (GPMA) formed in June 2013. That now has eight member organisations drawn from across the industry.
In March 2014 Morris was made an honorary VP of Picon in recognition of his contribution to the organisation and the industry.
Bob Usher, MD of Apex Digital Graphics, who succeeded Peter as Picon chairman, said: “I will always remember Peter as a gentleman with a robust personality and a huge passion for the print industry, combined with a heart of gold. That he made an enormous impression on anyone who was fortunate enough to meet him is clear from the many tributes we have received. People not only speak of his tireless enthusiasm for the print industry, to which the formation of the GPMA is a worthy memorial, but also recall his unfailing consideration for the people that make up the industry. I have personal experience of his immense generosity and kindness. When the Buncefield depot explosion in 2005 badly damaged the Apex headquarters he immediately gave us the warehouse and logistic support we urgently needed to keep the business operating.”