New Zealand lost a singular character and a business leader with the death of Lloyd Morrison at the age of 54 from cancer.
He made a significant contribution to the cultural, social and political realms, as well as in commerce where he made the fortune that allowed him to indulge personal passions ranging from a campaign to change the national flag through to helping launch the Phoenix Foundation onto the national music scene.
He was an investor in the rescue of the Wellington Phoenix football franchise, and helped bankroll the Pure Advantage business lobby promoting clean technology.
In the 1980s he was in a generation of entrepreneurs unleashed by the Rogernomics revolution, and a principal of Omnicorp which became a casualty of the October 1987 sharemarket crash.
He formed investment banking operation HRL Morrison & Co in 1988, and took Infratil public in 1994 with a $50 million float.
The company went on to build up a portfolio of infrastructure assets, mainly in New Zealand and Australia, worth around $4 billion and employing around 4000 people internationally today.
With Mr Morrison at its helm, Infratil gained a lustre that went beyond commercial success and reflected its founder.
"Lloyd's the brand champion," long-time Morrison senior executive Tim Brown said, just days before Mr Morrison succumbed to acute myeloid leukaemia, which was first diagnosed in 2009, and which he had sought treatment for in the United States.
In contrast to the buttoned-up ciphers normally associated with the higher echelons of corporate life, Mr Morrison was his own man and an energetic contributor to civic life at a national level, and in his home town Wellington.
A peer in the Wellington investment community, Rob Cameron, knew Mr Morrison well and the pair shared their experience of cancer in recent years.
The loss of his "very, very rare" visionary capacity was "a huge loss for New Zealand", Mr Cameron says
"He could bring firepower and resources to bear and make a huge difference, and that's what he's done."
Mr Morrison was a prime mover in the campaign in the early 2000s to ensure the local stock exchange was not sold to the Australian Stock Exchange, arguing that a country without its own stock exchange would hamper its own economic chances.
As an airport owner, he also wanted more flights landing and more competition for Air New Zealand, and sparked the initiative that brought Virgin Airlines to New Zealand.
However he was less successful in his desire to see the old Whenuapai airbase north of Auckland turned into a commercial airport.
Also unpopular, and surprising to Mr Morrison for the hysterical reaction it provoked, was his enthusiasm for the infamous "Wellywood" sign, which he saw as a humorous and appropriate greeting for travellers to the capital city of the New Zealand film industry.
While his involvement as an owner of the Phoenix football club was recent, his passion for sport was life-long and he shared private ownership of a corporate box at the Westpac Stadium with fisheries magnate Peter Talley.
Less well-known was his backing for the Wellington High Performance Aquatics Centre, which encourages young talent to stay in the city and has hosted qualifying events for the Olympic Games.
Programme manager Luvaine McDonald, who taught him to swim, had not seen him since childhood until a chance meeting at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006, and the centre gathered steam from there.
"He was certainly the driving force and didn't take no for an answer - he was just a wonderful person."
The National Business Review 2011 Rich List put Mr Morrison's personal wealth at $100 million, and described him a year earlier as "one of the most respected and cultured characters in New Zealand business circles".
- Hugh Richmond "Lloyd" Morrison, businessman, philanthropist, patron of the arts and sports.
- Born September 18 1957, Palmerston North, died February 10 2012, Seattle.
- Educated Wanganui Collegiate, University of Canterbury.
- Survived by his wife, Julie Nevett, and five children: Isabella, Madeleine, Ottilie, Vita and Elliott.
NZN