We have received the sad, but belated news today that Access industry veteran Brian Black has died.
He passed away peacefully on the second of April this year at the age of 75. Born in Seattle, Washington. He studied in both the United States and Germany along with spells in South America and Asia. He returned to the USA in 1965 and joined the army gaining Airborne/Ranger/Pathfinder qualifications, while seeing service in Vietnam, and becoming a member of the rifle team at Fort Belvoir, Virgina.
Brian Black in his access days
He then began a 40 year career in the international construction equipment business, working mostly in international sales and major accounts roles, for Caterpillar, Snorkel where he started his access career, Grove Manlift , JLG, Genie, Terex Construction, Teupen and finally Skyjack where he was appointed vice president of sales in 2012. He retired in 2014.
In the years since he retired he has remained active working with church outreach programmes building schools, clinics and orphanages in Mexico and Guatemala. He was also involved in a Prison Ministry programme (Kairos) to mentor incarcerated men in Spanish and Portuguese as they prepared to transition back into society.
Brian Black
He is survived by Jody, his wife of 47 years, two daughters Stacey and Allison and two grandchildren. His funeral was held on June 7th at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida.
A personal point of view
Brian came across as an intelligent gentle, likeable man of the world, multilingual and extremely well-travelled, he was interested in different cultures and people, and never seemed to have a bad word to say about anyone. He was unashamedly devout in his religious beliefs, but never tried to foist them onto others or even raise the matter, unless it came up in conversation and context. The world has lost a gentle giant.
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