Tributes paid to long-standing former trustee
Tributes have been paid following the death of a long-standing former trustee and volunteer for LionHeart, who gave well over 20 years of her time in support of her fellow surveyors.
Jean Platt FRICS – who was also very proud to be one of the first ever female quantity surveyors – served as a trustee and on the grants committee, sometimes even carrying out visits on our behalf to surveyors who needed our help. She stepped down from volunteering in 2011 but remained a lifelong supporter of LionHeart (pictured above left in 2011, with the late Derek Sayer, a former chair of LionHeart, and former trustee Frances Moore).
Jean, who was 91, died on March 10 after a long illness. Her long surveying career included many years at Hertfordshire County Council before moving to private practice following her retirement from the local authority in the 1980s
LionHeart’s support services manager Bena Kansara, who worked with Jean for many years, said: “Jean was such an important part of LionHeart over the years and gave so much of herself in support of the charity and her fellow professionals. She will be remembered very fondly, both for her commitment and for the difference she helped us make in people’s lives.”
Writing on LinkedIn, former trustee Caroline Pelham-Lane FRICS said: "I had the pleasure of serving as a trustee alongside Jean: she blended compassion with common sense and always helped to build consensus within discussions. However if she disagreed with you, she held her tongue until you had put your case and she listened to your point of view, before demolishing it in a few pithy words: or (occasionally) changing her mind.
"A fair and incredibly kind colleague. May she rest in peace."
Other former trustees also paid tribute, remembering Jean as a “lively contributor” to committee meetings and her “dedicated sense of commitment” to LionHeart and the surveyors it supported.
One said: “She was such a lovely lady and a very diligent trustee.”
Jean’s extraordinary commitment to her professional charity will even be marked at her funeral, when donations in lieu of flowers will be shared between LionHeart and her local hospice.
Jean is survived by daughter, Helen, who has invited any former professional colleagues and associates to attend the funeral, to be held on April 20 in Hertfordshire.
