22.01.2019

Avice Amelia Hunt 1921–2018

We have received the belated news that Avice Hunt, who spent many years as a director of UK access specialist John Rusling has died.

Generally known as ‘Miss Hunt’ she joined contractor William Moss in the early 1950s and became personal assistant to John Rusling, following him to the company’s access equipment sales and rental division Access Equipment, which had a manufacturing licence from UpRight in California to produce its Zip-Up scaffold towers. Rusling later left Access Equipment to form his own company John Rusling Ltd selling scaffold towers and other non-powered access equipment.

In 1970 he moved the fledgling business to Newport, Shropshire and Hunt moved with him and was appointed as a director of the company, which became the distributor for UpRight’s Instant Rib-Grip alloy scaffold towers and aerial work platforms. The business as acquired by UpRight as it stepped up its sales efforts in Europe and expanded its production facility in Ireland.

Rusling and Hunt remained with the company, with Rusling later promoted managing director of UpRight’s European business. Hunt too over as managing director of the UK business which had by now opened a series of sales and rental depots, with 120 employees. She remained in charge until she retired in the 1980s.

Avice Hunt spent her early years in London and never married, telling her colleagues that “when men came back from the war there simply were not enough to go around”. She did however live her life to the full travelling extensively after retirement. She died on December 5th at the age of 97.
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Avice Amelia Hunt