John Pinner - Obituary

John Pinner

It was with great sorrow that we learned of the death of John Pinner on Thursday 26th February, following health problems, several months battling cancer, and then a nasty fall down stairs in early February.

John joined ASOC in September 1988 and he was co-opted onto the board and the Spares Committee in February 1990. At this time, he was already working on an IT system that, with a little tweaking, would be just right for us. To give us this system, John had to load all individual membership details and some 7,000 stock items – an enormous task to take on whilst still running his own business. And so he brought our club into the modern era, giving us an IT system for both membership and stores.

John was a well known member of the club, organising some of our National events, as well as attending other numerous meets with Sheila both here and abroad, with and without his Armstrong Siddeley, perhaps in his 12+, Star or Typhoon, depending on which car was on the road at the time. And so he made many friends across the world. He and Sheila attended the very first German Tour (now a regular event on the A/S calendar), and organised two holidays to France, both of which were well attended and proved very popular.

It was thanks to John that ASOC were able to offer members the advantages of paying their annual subscriptions by Direct Debit when this was still a new concept, and it was, and still is, most unusual for a club of our size to be able to offer this service. Until very recently, it was John who organised our annual stock-take at stores which, as a limited company, ASOC has to complete.

Not only did John store our library and archives in his offices, but his board room was always made available for our bi-monthly board meetings and with lunch provided by Sheila, which always went down very well – and we must not forget the naughty nibbles with the coffee!

We offer Sheila and her family our deepest sympathy at this difficult time.

Posted in General News on the 2nd March 2015 at 9:22am.