The founder of the Freightways transportation group Sir Russell Pettigrew has died aged 94.
He had a long and distinguished career in business as well as taking a leading role in many community groups and his passion for the game of rugby was well known.
Pettigrew started his career in road transport in 1944 on his return from service in WW II with an 8-seat Packard car that he drove from Napier to Te Pohue servicing a local butcher, greengrocer, and haberdasher.
From there the business expanded to three trucks in 1945, and the Pettigrew Group eventually had an extensive freight operation in the North Island with six separate companies operating within the group.
Freightways Express was formed as a public company in 1964, following many acquisitions and negotiations in both New Zealand and Australia and later becoming New Zealand’s largest international road, rail, air and sea service transport operation of its time.
Companies such as Armourguard, Bandag Tyres, Chep Handling Systems, Daily and Sea Freightways, and NZ Couriers were the direct result of Pettigrew and his team’s ability to foresee and fulfil the needs of the transport industry. He retired from Freightways in 1988.
Pettigrew was also the founder and former president of the New Zealand Rugby Foundation, an organisation he founded alongside Kel Tremain which cares for seriously injured rugby players.
He also served as President of the New Zealand and Hawkes Bay Rugby Football Unions, and Napier High School Old Boys Rugby Football Club; was installed as a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International, granted Freedom of the City of Napier, was an inductee of the Hawkes Bay Business Hall of Fame, and a Life Member of the Transport Forum, Hawkes Bay Rugby Football Union, and the Meeanee Rodeo Association.
In 1982, Pettigrew was knighted for his services to transport, community and sport. He and his wife Glennis were former Patrons of the Sensible Sentencing Trust and he served as Founding Trustee and Board Member of many Hawkes Bay community boards, and served on Boards as Director of 14 companies, including NZFP, Watties, Union Steam Ship Co, UEB, and AGC Finance, to name but a few.
