Richard (Dick) Godsil, who has died aged 87, will always be associated with the Cadbury chocolate crumb factory in Rathmore, Co Kerry, which he was instrumental in establishing and which he managed for its first eight years. Last October, he was present when the factory, which manufactures the main ingredient of chocolate from milk, sugar and cocoa, celebrated its 50th anniversary.
A computer room in the local school was sponsored by Cadbury and named the Dick Godsil Learning Centre.
Richard Godsil was born in Boherbue, Co Cork, in 1912, where his father was manager of the local creamery. His mother (nee Mahony) was from north Co Cork. He had four sisters. He attended Rochestown College before going on to study dairy science in UCC. In 1936, he married Noreen (nee Fuller) and they had two children, Ann and Tony.
In 1954, he became a joint managing director of Fry-Cadbury Ireland and two years later moved to Dublin to select the site and oversee the building of the new Coolock chocolate factory, which today is the only producer of "Flake", "Time Out" and "Twirl" in the northern hemisphere.
When guests arrived from Britain, he would make discreet enquiries in Bournville about their importance. If they were suitable they would receive "the LynchBages treatment", meaning they would be treated to Bord Bainne's preferred Premier Cru vintage and dinner at the Russell, Royal Hibernian or Shelbourne Hotel.
But he is remembered for being discreetly generous to inner-city charities. He was widely known in business circles, recognised as a dapper dresser but a solid and self-effacing businessman who supported sensible industrial strategies. Very much a Sean Lemass man, he described the former Minister for Industry and Commerce and Taoiseach as the father of Irish industry.
During his lifetime Richard Godsil held numerous directorships but was mostly associated with Bord Bainne, now the Irish Dairy Board. He was the longest serving director, being on the board for 29 years, from its inception in 1961 to 1990.
His experience had taught him the need to balance the centralising of distribution networks for dairy products with the needs of farmers. He was also at various times a director of Chivers (Ireland) - taken over by Fry-Cadbury in 1969 - and a director of the Irish Sugar Company, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Erin Foods and the ESB. He also served as chairman of the Pigs & Bacon Commission. Richard Godsil grew up with the fledgling dairy industry and witnessed the main changes which placed it from within a semi-closed, protectionist economy at the height of the Economic War in the early 1930s to being a major component of the State's agribusiness sector today.
After a series of posts as a creamery assistant, he became a manager, at 21, of the Dairy Disposal Company which later became Kerry Co-Op and evolved into Kerry Group plc. He put the success of the early venture on the Dingle peninsula down to the travelling creamery, which was developed around this time and established main collection and processing points for widely dispersed farmers to dispose of their milk. In 1936, he was transferred by the company to be manager of an area encompassing Millstreet, Co Cork, and Rathmore, and spent the next 12 years building up the business, with one central creamery and nine subsidiaries. During the Emergency years, he was involved in a venture of burning lime for use as a fertiliser. He is also credited with being the first to produce butter oil which became an important export and would be reconstituted as butter at its destination point. He spent 27 years working for Fry Cadbury, joining the company in 1948, having carried out the ground work for the establishment of the chocolate crumb factory in Rathmore. It drew on milk supplies from 22 creameries, including ones as far away as Listowel in north Kerry, and Kilmallock in Co Limerick.
He had identified that while the State could not export raw sugar, to Britain, because of trade barriers, it could export crumb, as processed sugar. In an area of high emigration and scarce employment, the factory gave jobs to about 300 people.
A keen golfer, he was a mentor to many people in his later years.
Richard Godsil: born 1912; died June, 1999.