Auckland "fundraising machine" Eileen Hartstone has died aged 89.
Auckland "fundraising machine" Eileen Hartstone has died aged 89.
Eileen Mary Hartstone1929 - 2018
From wife of a struggling Waikato farmer to Auckland charity fundraiser - Eileen Hartstone's long life changed sharply under the influence of a device that "revolutionised" the dairy industry.
The widow of inventor John Lewis Hartstone, Eileen died aged 89 at the St Andrew's retirement village hospital in Glendowie on Friday.
John died in December, aged 95.
He had grown up on his father's dairy farm on the outskirts of Hamilton. He spent two years with the J Force in post-World War II Japan and sold tractors in Matamata.
In 1963, when he was 40 and a self-described struggling farmer of dairy cows and sheep near Otorohanga, John invented a device that could accurately measure a cow's milk output.
"It revolutionised the dairy industry," said David Hartstone, one of the couple's sons.
What became known as the Tru-Test meter, and the growing international business it generated, also revolutionised the Hartstone family.
"We sold out in 1990," said David. "When we sold it was a $10 million turnover company."
It is now a much larger international company that has continued to diversify into a range of farming technology.
Decades after its invention, the Tru-Test meter dominates the world market for cow milk measurement. By informing cow selection, it is said to have made an important contribution to New Zealand's more than 50 per cent increase in milk production per cow over 50 years.
Eileen was born in Waimate, South Canterbury, the first of five children. Their father was a bank manager and the family moved a number of times.
She studied nursing at Waikato Hospital before marrying John and moving to Tahaia, southeast of Otorohanga.
The couple had five children and after John developed the meter, Eileen was left to run both home and farm as her husband worked to establish markets for the device in New Zealand and overseas.
"She kept that farm going and also managed the little kids," said daughter Trish Baker.
"Dad and Tru-Test could never have come to fruition without Mum doing all that."
The family shifted to Auckland and Eileen later became involved in fundraising for charities.
"She was a walking fundraising machine, my mother," David recalls.
Eileen Hartstone survived her husband John by six months.
She served two stints as president - 1982-84 and 1996-98 - of the women's committee of what is now called Laura Ferguson Rehabilitation, an organisation established in the 1960s which provides residential and rehabilitation services for people with disabilities. The women's committee was the trust's fundraising arm.
Eileen became a founding member of the organisation that brought the Radio Lollipop play, entertainment and cable-radio service to Auckland's Starship children's hospital soon after it opened in 1991.
The charity's chairwoman, Lorraine Andrewes, said Eileen was part of a small group of women who raised the $89,000 needed to establish the service at Starship.
John and Eileen Hartstone had 13 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. A service to remember Eileen will be held in Orākei on Friday.
