Bill Peet, who has died aged 95, spent his working life in the electricity industry - mainly with the Electricity Supply Board - and, in retirement, worked with the Peace People in Northern Ireland and with Mother Teresa in India.
Asked about his outstanding memories, he recalled recording the details of Ezekiel's temple from the Book of Ezekiel. "The temple, which was never built, had its dimensions recorded on stone. I drew it out and in 1995/1996 I described it from memory and had my nephew-in-law draw it out on computer."
His fondest memory was of a Life magazine photograph that showed a little girl with an artificial leg. He had found the child, Fatima, lying outside his home in Santanangar in India. Although she spoke no English, she indicated that she wanted him to make her a leg. He had never made a limb for a child so small, and he was deeply touched when he saw the photograph of Fatima "standing proud as punch".
William Vallis Peet was born on March 11th, 1908, in Gloucester, one of five children of an Irish father and an English mother. His father, a marine engineer, returned to Ireland in 1914 and set up a heating systems business. The family lived in Dalkey, Co Dublin, and, having completed his early education at Talbot Lodge, William entered Trinity College, Dublin, to study engineering at the age of 16.
On graduating in 1928, he secured employment with the Lincolnshire Electricity Board. Following a stint with the Electricity Board of Northern Ireland, he joined the ESB in 1937.
Working initially in the design department, he then moved to the generation department. He left the Pigeon House, Ringsend, in 1949 on his appointment as the first superintendent of the ESB's peat-burning power station in Portarlington. There the staff of 100 consisted of "good hard workers who knew their job".
He, however, never quite understood the importance of the pub in Irish life. "We tried to start an arts group, which had some success for five years, but you just couldn't get the men to change their ways and go somewhere else." His wife, Helen, was more successful with the branch of the Irish Countrywomen's Association she founded. "She was always more popular than me," he said.
Following his retirement from the ESB, he and Helen lived in Nairn, Scotland. Throughout his life he was a man of strong Christian faith and, even though he was a member of the Religious Society of Friends, he generally practised his faith in the church nearest to him.
In Scotland he was active in the Presbyterian Church and became a church elder.
Widowed in 1973, his pacifist instincts prompted him to work with the Peace People in Northern Ireland. With the decline of the organisation and the continued high levels of violence, he quit Ardoyne for Dalkey. He continued to take an active interest in Northern Ireland through his involvement with the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation during its early years. Living in a caravan at the centre, he did the practical work of tending the gardens and growing vegetables.
But his thoughts kept returning to a remarkable person he had encountered in Belfast. In April 1977, with little money, no return ticket and a letter of recommendation from a priest, he set out for Calcutta to assist the work of Mother Teresa.
His journey was an adventure in itself, travelling overland by bus through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In all he made 13 trips to India where he made many good friends. Mother Teresa sent him to work in the Ranchi leper community making wooden limbs. He also provided financial assistance for the education of the younger members of a family that he befriended.
Travelling back and forth to India, he lived with relatives in New Ross, Co Wexford. For the last nine years of his life he resided at the Sue Ryder Home in Owning, Co Kilkenny, where in 1998 he and his twin sister, Eileen (since deceased), celebrated their 90th birthday. He continued to enjoy gardening to the end.
His nephew and nieces survive him.
Bill Peet: born, March 11th, 1908; died, February 16th, 2004