Think of an “influencer” these days and chances are a not altogether wholesome image of someone who is paid, conventionally or in kind, to recommend a brand on social media will spring to mind.
Long before the word took on this meaning, I was spending the majority of my working life writing about, or directly dealing with, a good many of the people in Cornwall who were what I would regard as genuine “influencers.”
In short, these people were the real deal, the achievers – the sort who made the world go round. They quite literally made a difference.
One such was Dennis Pascoe, who died 36 years ago this month, aged 64, following a short illness. He had retired through ill health six months earlier after a 45-year association with Falmouth Docks.
Dennis had few if any contemporary equals in his contribution to local business and public life.
It is for his years at the helm of the dockyard’s management, during which time it pulled back from the brink of closure, that he is best remembered.
But he was also closely and enthusiastically involved with a number of other organisations and interests, including Penryn Rotary Club and Falmouth Amateur Operatic Society.
Further, he earned widespread respect and popularity for numerous unpublicised acts of goodwill and kindness.
Above all, having himself classically worked his way from the bottom to the top, he was always ready to provide help and advice in generous portions to those who sought or needed it.
In 1983 he received the Saracen Award, the highest honour that his home town of Penryn could give, and four years later he was co-opted onto its Town Council.
In early 1979, the district reeled under the bombshell announcement that shiprepair at the Docks, its biggest private employer, was to be closed down by its then owners, British Shipbuilders.
An intense survival campaign persuaded BS to keep the yard open with a “skeleton” workforce of 175 men, including 71 allocated to shiprepair, while nearly 1,000 men lost their jobs.
Dennis, then commercial director, was appointed director and general manager, subsequently becoming managing director.
Within four years, the Docks workforce had more than doubled and two successive million pound-plus trading profits had been recorded.
Educated at Falmouth Grammar School, Dennis began his career at the Docks as an apprentice fitter and turner in 1939.
After a period at sea with the Eagle Oil and Shipping Company, he came ashore as a 2nd engineer and returned to the Docks as a foreman fitter in 1950.
He subsequently worked his way through the positions of estimator, chief estimator, accounts administrator and commercial manager until, in June, 1975, he was appointed to the board of Silley, Cox and Co Ltd, then the yard’s owners, as commercial director.
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