Mr B

I had my first by-line in Our Way (Airlines PNG's in-flight magazine) today - a tribute to Sir Brian Bell.

So, here's the Tribute (sans errors)

Mister B

Sir Brian Bell CSM, KBE, C. St J. was an influential man, who provided jobs and training, dug deep into his pockets for those less fortunate, and set a high bar for any competition – business or otherwise. In 1958, this young Australian pioneer established the Brian Bell and Company retail outlet in Port Moresby that expanded into what is now a department store empire, generating revenue of K253 million annually, and employing  1,300 staff in 10 retail outlets and more than 25 distribution agencies within the country.

In his fifty-six years in PNG, he earned the respect and adoration of the people, and on the 25^th of July this year, a sadness spread across the nation as news travelled of his passing.

It was back in 1954 that the young man of 25 stepped off a Sandringham flying boat (converted Royal Air Force WWII military plane) and onto the shores of Konedobu, Port Moresby. He travelled lightly with a handful of clothes and £500 (approx. AUD15,000 today) resolute in his hopes and dreams. He had first heard of New Guinea the year before when the murder of two kiaps or patrol officers headlined all across Australia. So, armed with a Diploma of Pharmacy and some experience working as a locum in rural Queensland, he headed north to seek his adventure.

New to PNG and only 25 years old, Bell phoned the brother of a friend and got a temporary job with the Department of Works as a timekeeper for hired heavy equipment. He worked alongside his long-term friend the late Sir George Constantinou.

After a few months he tried his hand in pharmacy again working for the department of health, and thought about opening his own pharmaceutical business. But in the mid-50s, Johnston’s Pharmacy had already been established and Brian thought there wasn’t room for two pharmacies in Port Moresby. So, assessing the needs of the town, he went in another direction and opened ‘The Gunshop’ in Lakatoi Arcade, Boroko instead.

”He sold and repaired guns, as well as extending his services to those who wanted a haircut, ‘Brian the Barber of Boroko’!” revealed Paul King, Purchasing and Supply Manager at Brian Bell, in his eulogy.

With no licensing, Brian brought in guns from all over the world, re-barrelling and rebuilding them, then selling them to patrol officers. In 1957, The Gunshop expanded into ammunition, paint, and sporting goods and Brian began to fill gaps in the retail market in Port Moresby. He moved away from guns and started providing refrigerators and freezers. What he really offered, that set his retail outlet apart from other companies, was his unrivalled after-sales services and repairs, and in 1958, the Brian Bell and Co was established, importing, wholesaling, and retailing white goods and electricals.

The week following Sir Brian’s death saw a deluge of tributes rain down on the PNG media. The Post Courier released a special supplement to publish the memories and kind words that revealed much about his character and the impact he’d had on the country. Business houses, employees, charities, sporting leagues, customers sent in their stories on how they’d known and looked up to Mr B.

Sir Brian Bell CSM, KBE, C. St J. was remembered as a simple man with a heart of gold; acknowledged for donating gardening tools and seeds to affected families after the Aitape Tsunami in 1998 and sending his own maintenance workers to fix the air-conditioning at Port Moresby General Hospital at the drop of a hat, to name a few. The tributes revealed a general impression of awe, respect, and loss and thanked him for his donations and friendship.

Brian Bell was an apt business man, but his services to the community were beyond compare. He lived simply and gave generously. In January 1994, he was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for services to business and the community. He was Chairman of the Port Moresby General Hospital and a prominent benefactor of the Salvation Army and Port Moresby City Mission.

The list of high profile positions Sir Brian Bell held is impressive:

Member and Deputy Mayor of Port Moresby City Council

Member of the PNG Land Board

Member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board

Chairman of University of Papua New Guinea Foundation

Chairman of NCD South Pacific Festival of Arts – 1980

Patron of AIESEC PNG University

Patron of Port Moresby City Mission

Member of PNG Law and Order Committee

Chairman of Port Moresby General Hospital

Chairman of Salvation Army (Red Shield Appeal)

Director of Johnston’s Pharmacy

Honorary Consul General of Norway

Honorary Consul General of Sweden

He was also bestowed with many Honours and Awards:

1975 Independence Medal

1976 Citizen of PNG

1977 Officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE)

1978 Queens Jubilee Medal

1986 Community Service Medal

1990 Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star (Sweden) K’NO

1991 Royal Order of Merit, Knight, First Class (Norway) R’NO

1994 Knight of the British Empire (KBE)

2009 QUT Outstanding Alumni Special Excellence Award

His hand was in all facets of PNG life.

“He approached the many boards and committees he sat on with the same energy, cutting wit, straight talking and wise counsel he imbued in his business life,” venerates David A. Conn MBE, CEO of Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce. ”It is hard to remember one sporting event, charitable function or fundraiser that the Brian Bell Group of companies did not support in some way.”

Brian first joined the Salvation Army Board in 1982. Initially, Mr B. said he was too busy to become attached to the Army. But Colonel Cecil Williams was able to change his mind, telling him, “If you want something done ask a busy man.” For more than 25 years, Sir Brian donated to and supported the Army, and made many friends there as a consequence.

He was awarded the prestigious ‘Order of Distinguished Auxiliary Service’ in 2005 during the 50^th Anniversary of the Army in PNG. He was passionate about tackling issues effecting the youth of the country such as the increase in HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy. “You gotta help as much as you can,” Sir Brian insisted.

Though Sir Brian Bell was bestowed with many Honours and Awards, he refrained from making a big issue of himself in the media. But he was a big follower of the media, as Oseah Philemon fondly remembers.

As a former Post-courier editor, it became part of the job to receive an earful from Mr B. over the phone each week. Despite being made to explain or defend stories or issues that the Post-Courier did or didn’t cover, Oseah Philemon admired Sir Brian’s manner.

“No words can describe what he meant to PNG. He was always direct and made no secret about his views.”

After a bit of a vent, Bell would concede to the editor’s justification on one issue then lash out at him on another. But the current Lae Bureau Chief, Philemon, always admired the man. It was hard to separate the critical man from the altruistic man, after all. As chair of this, that, and the other, he gave a lot of himself without complaint.

“I never ever heard him complain about anything he was doing for the community. Perhaps the only complaints he ever had were about newspapers not performing according to his own expectations,” marvels Philemon.

Born in Chinchilla Queensland, 3 July 1928, to Ernest James Bell, a farmer, and Evelina Ivy Alice, a school teacher, Sir Brian was one of three children; the middle child between an older brother Harold and a younger sister Merle. He attended Chinchilla State Primary School, Toowoomba Grammar, then The Central Technical College (now the Queensland University of Technology) where he studied pharmacy.

Brian’s upbringing on rural property in the Great Depression of the 1930s set in stone frugal values that he was never able to outgrow. Rather than buying new business shirts, it was his habit to have his old collars replaced on annual visits to Hong Kong. One year, Paul King, persuaded Brian to have a pair of shark-skin shoes hand made. When Brian got the USD $200 bill, he was absolutely stunned; said he’d never in all his life paid so much for a pair of shoes. But they quickly became his favourites and he would replace the soles whenever they wore through.

In a way, he was ahead of his time, not liking waste and being economical to a standard employed by environmentalists today. He used to check that his staff had used both sides of their A4 office paper, even going so far as to check in the office bins at the end of the day. “Several times, I found paper I had not used on both sides on my desk the next morning,” says Mr King.

Brian married Jean Clough on the 13^th of January, 1962. Jean had two children from her first marriage to Eric Gordon Clough; Trevan and Lee became Brian’s step-children. Brian’s family increased to seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Sir Brian was also close to his goddaughter Marina Prior, daughter of his best man at his wedding.

“Jean worked tirelessly in the early days of the business, up until her health deteriorated and she passed away in 1992,” Paul commends Sir Brian’s wife during his eulogy at Sir Brian’s funeral, adding also, that Brian would be laid to rest alongside her. She was an extremely generous, big-hearted woman who contributed much to the community.

Brian and Jean also fostered a son from China – Jianwei Xi, whom they sponsored to study in The United States. In the late 80s, Jean and Brian met Dr Jianwei Xi in a hospital in Qingdao, China. Jean had fallen ill and was diagnosed with pneumonia while she and Brian were taking a holiday. Jianwei (pronounced very much like John Wayne) was the doctor most advanced in English, and pleased to be assigned to treat Jean and answer her questions. He took care of Brian too, finding him accommodation and recommending restaurants, while Jean recovered.

 Jean learned much about Jianwei, including his goal to study in the US. After a week in his care, she and Brian left a gift of $30 to cover the registration for the English exam Jianwei would need to take to begin his studies. At the time, this was the equivalent of three months of his salary.

From then on, Brian sponsored Jianwei’s visa and his studies and refused to be repaid. “He never asked for anything back, though I had offered many many times. It was unforgettable... This kind of support is what only parents would do for their children,” Jianwei says overwhelmed by their generosity.

Sir Brian also helped arrange for Jianwei’s wife and daughter to move to the US, and they had a son born there. With Sir Brian’s support, Jianwei completed two master’s degrees, his wife got her master’s and their daughter graduated from Harvard University. 

“Their great love and care was always with us in the past, is in our hearts now, and will be carried on in the future.” Jianwei settles on a reflective Chinese proverb to determine his admiration and gratitude to Sir Brian Bell, “Drinking water from the well, one should never forget who dug it.”

Goddaughter Marina Prior is an Australian opera singer with a long list of performance credits to her name. She performed at Sir Brian’s 81^st Birthday Celebration in 2009; an event that raised over K400,000 for Mr B’s favourite charities, the main beneficiaries being Operation Open Heart and Port Moresby City Mission.

Mr B’s housekeeper for over 35 years was Ms Eunice Sebita. Her children and grandchildren all went to school at the expense of Sir Brian. They learned a lot from him directly too; about generosity and humility. Each Christmas, Sir Brian would have one of Eunice’s children wait at the gate of the house with food and money to give to the rubbish collectors. And he wasn’t too proud to pick up a mop and bucket himself to teach a janitor how to clean.

The illustrious face of the Brian Bell logo—the rectangular specs and toothbrush moustache—immortalised Sir Brian Bell. During his lifetime, many an inspired artist replicated his portrait-logo and traded it to the man, who hung the array of abstract paintings at the Boroko office reception, and displayed a mud mask of himself, bespectacled and moustachioed, in his board room.

Inevitably, as happens to an individual of so much character and influence, a biography of Sir Brian Bell was compiled and finalised before he passed away. Mr Jim Sinclair, author of over 30 PNG titles in the past 40 years, worked closely with Mr B. on the manuscript, awaiting approval from Sir Brain chapter by chapter as he detailed his life.

“The book runs to 448 pages so it is very difficult for me to try and sum him up in a few words!” says Mr Sinclair. 

“All I can really say is that Brian was an outstanding businessman, but he will be remembered not for his business success, but for his unmatched record as a philanthropist. Over a half-century he poured untold sums of money into a huge range of charities and good causes in PNG, and never attempted to make capital of his generosity. He could be prickly and difficult in his business role, but was a completely different man socially. His like will not be seen again in PNG, and he will be hugely missed.”

Mr. B: The Life and Times of Sir Brian Bell by Jim Sinclair will be published and available in stores from December 2010.