MIROSLAV HAVEL, who has died at the age of 86, was a Czechoslovakian glass designer who came to Waterford as a young immigrant in 1947 and went on to have a remarkable influence on the revival of the city's glass industry, helping to establish one of Ireland's flagship brands on the international market.
A rare all-rounder in an industry where people tend to specialise, he was not only a highly-talented glass blower, but also an engraver, cutter, designer, polisher and sculptor.
As founding chief designer of Waterford Crystal, he created the bestselling Lismore pattern, avidly collected among the Irish Diaspora in the US and still a linchpin of Waterford Crystal's reputation.
Along with designing and cutting the magnificent chandeliers at Westminster Abbey, installed to celebrate its 700th anniversary, he made the chandeliers for the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who toured the Waterford factory in 1967.
Havel's son Brian, a Chicago-based professor of international law, recalls, in a biography entitled Maestro of Crystal, that Havel intended staying only three months in Waterford when he arrived there in July 1947. In the event, he stayed on for 60 years, becoming an adopted Waterford man, an Irish citizen, and marrying a local girl, Betty Storey (they celebrated 51 years of marriage this year).
Among his colleagues, Havel acquired the soubriquet Paddy after the local bishop convinced him to take Patrick for his Confirmation because he could not pronounce the name of his chosen Czech saint.
A fellow countryman and former employer, Charles Bacik (grandfather of Senator Ivana Bacik) invited Havel to Waterford with the aim of reviving the city's crystal industry. Bacik spotted Havel as an intern in one of the many glass factories he had owned in Bohemia before fleeing to Ireland, where he had business connections with senator Joseph McGrath, in the wake of the rise of the Communist Party in Prague.
The young Havel had a first-rate technical education at the only glass school in the world at the time, and later studied at prestigious Academy of Art and Industrial Design in Prague.
However, his education was interrupted by the war. Joining the partisans, he evaded the Nazi round-up of Czechs towards the end of the war.
So naive was the 25-year-old that he believed Waterford had a thriving glass industry and was associated with exotic tropical fruits. In reality, he was the sole employee, tasked with establishing a new glassworks in the suburb of Ballytruckle.
Yet few immigrants can claim such a profound influence on the Irish economy. Besides sparking newfound confidence in a community that took pride in its glass industry, his workmanship played a key role in the emergence of a modern industrial economy.
Historically, the city had a long association with glassmaking, going back to the late 18th century when George and William Penrose, local Quaker merchants, set up a factory there in 1783.
Though its award-winning products gained an international reputation, the factory closed under heavy British excise taxes in the mid-1800s.
Havel spent long hours in the National Museum of Ireland studying surviving examples of the crystal. "I spent three to four months studying and copying old Waterford glass," he recalled.
"From that amazingly beautiful old glass I was getting ideas. I tried to design a pattern with a pleasant look which suited our production and which didn't show the cutting too strongly."
A talented artist, Havel was also a brilliant teacher and trained generations of skilled craftsmen.
As chief designer until his retirement in 1990, he had a reputation as a kindly manager, nurturing hundreds of young people into making glass.
Among many works commissioned by governments and institutions, he created a crystal replica of the Statue of Liberty, which he presented to the late US president Ronald Reagan in the White House to mark the statue's centenary in 1986.
He is survived by his wife Betty, sons Brian, John and Mirek, daughters Elizabeth, Clodagh and Julie, and 11 grandchildren.
• Miroslav (Paddy) Havel: born May 26th, 1922; died September 5th, 2008