We lost a friend last week. It was with real shock that we discovered that Piers White had died in tragic circumstances while climbing Mount Kenya.
Piers has been a long time friend and supporter of Sport for Business, going all the way back to a first meeting at the Irish Sponsorship Summit when his friend and business partner at the time Mark Pollock was the guest speaker.
He had an infectious enthusiasm for the passions in his life and the people around him.
He played a crucial role in bringing the Run in the Dark series to become the movement it has and a major fundraiser for the Mark Pollock Trust and the incredible work they are doing in terms of recovery from catastrophic spinal injury.
When he stepped away from that a few years back we would still meet up on a regular basis for coffee and chats around town, and he was a regular attendee at our events.
In fact that continued right up to the end when he was in our virtual room for The Sporting Year Ahead only ten days ago. I had it on my list to ring him to see how everything was and to set in motion some more probably hare-brained schemes for when this is all over.
In the last couple of years, he found a home for his energy and ambition at Mondello Park working alongside Roddy Greene as Commercial director there.
Just over a year ago, he created a pop-up shop in Dublin city centre where a virtual racing set up was there to attract new visitors.
It is heartbreaking that I won’t get to make that call now, and that a really good person is no longer with us.
Mark Pollock has paid a moving tribute to his friend.
“He was the wide-eyed experience seeker who relentlessly pursued the next moments. And, that’s where this devastatingly ends. Piers White died during an adventure on Mount Kenya and I write these words not yet able to accept that we’ll not meet up for that pint in McSorleys when this pandemic ends.”
“That’s what we had agreed just before he left for Africa. It’s not going to happen now and I’m struggling to make sense of that reality, the permanency of it.”
“Piers had too much life in him for it to be true that he is gone. And, I’m so sad that he’s not going to just appear again – I just hope he went to sleep that night on the mountain happy that he was out there doing it again; living life. Thank you, for being you, Piers.”
Thank you indeed and rest in peace.
Sport for Business Partners
