Geoff Robert’s legacy to us all
Olga Abel, formerly of Qantas Holidays sent me a very touching and appropriate reminder of how we should value and approach life.
This is what she said: –
I am writing about the passing of Geoff Roberts, [Pictured below] formerly of Flairview, Cendant, GTA, Qantas Holidays, Top Deck Travel and much more!
Geoffrey passed away on 5May 07 after a ‘short battle’ with the ravaging pancreatic cancer.
He was 50 years old.
He touched many lives outside and inside the travel industry and this was proven at his funeral ceremony which was attended by close to 400 persons on the 11th May.
His life can be a lesson to many of us and this is what I thought may be pertinent to the managers of our industry.
It is people that make the world go around and not the ‘machines’ that many of our managers like to hide behind.
‘Machines’ do not think for themselves, nor work on their own (at least not yet) and they are still subject to the many people that use them as tools.
Geoffrey recognised that ‘people come first’ and then they will make the ‘machines’ work for us all.
He was a great life coach, mentor, a scholar, a true gentleman and above all a family man, a great friend and colleague.
I have attached a photograph and the verse that was the legacy that he lived and died by.
Geoff was none of the first industry people I met when I arrived in Australia with BTA and he has always been on of the gentlest people I have known and will be sorely missed by me and many other and I am sure I speak on behalf of many TravelMole subscribers.
His approach to life and his legacy for us all is summed up the verse below and Olga’s comments, which we should all take heed of.
Thank you Geoff for being a friend and thank you Olga for your thoughts and taking the time to contact me.
Our thoughts are with Geoff’s family.
John Alwyn-Jones
John Alwyn-Jones
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