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Stanley was the founder of the Federation
of Wine and Food Societies of New Zealand and acted as its President
from the Federations inception until accepting the title of Founder
President some 10 years ago. Since the inception of the Federation
Stanley was a tireless worker and advocate for change. He was
also a prolific letter writer and lobbied long and hard for improvements
in the standard of Wine and Food in New Zealand and for this
work he was honoured with a Queens Service Medal. All of us will
well know of the extensive Newsletter he religiously wrote every
month and it was with a somewhat eerie feeling I read his last
newsletter which I received 2 days after his death. Stanley also
ran the Federation Wine Scheme which ran for many years and unbelievable
amounts of wine were ordered by Societies. Stanley was always
a bit "larger than life" and Conventions are not going
to be the same without his presence. In 1998 the federation had
a Stanley Harris medal minted to be presented to anyone who had
given outstanding service to the Federation, about the only time
I saw Stanley speechless (at least for a couple of minutes anyway).
The photo above was taken shortly after he was presented with
the first Medal to be awarded. Stanley was also honoured by the
Wine Institute of New Zealand last year becoming one of only
three life members. On a personal note I know that Stanley was
a technophobe and would absolutely hate the thought that he had
been written about on the internet. Wherever you are Stanley
I hope you forgive my transgression. To finish I would like to
quote from a letter Professor Don Beven wrote to Stanley on the
occasion of his Life Membership of the Wine Institute. |
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"It's almost difficult to remember how
awful the food and wine were in most hotels before you came on
the scene...we all eat and drink so much more aristocratically
as a result of your hard work over so many years" |
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Ray Toms
Web Master
Vice President
Federation of Wine and Food Societies of New Zealand |
