Thinking Inside The Box

The beginning of the end…

oday, at 1.30pm, at The Holy Rosary Church in Greystones, Frederick Norman Lee will be laid to rest.

The father of twelve lived a pretty remarkable life, and a long one too, passing away last Saturday at the ripe old age of 97.

Originally from Dublin city centre, after serving with the Royal Navy during World War 2, Fred earned his millions after creating cardboard canisters for Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder. Later, he set up Industrial Packaging Limited in Bray, a hugely successful business still in the Lee family.

Over the last 35 years, Fred has spoken many times of how it would be far more practical to be buried in a cardboard coffin tube. And  today, his last wish is coming true, as he’s buried this afternoon in Redford cemetery in the world’s first cardboard cylinder coffin.

It is, of course, a fitting farewell for the man dubbed The Cardboard King, as his son, Ken, explained to independent.ie. “Dad always said, ‘Why don’t we use cardboard tubes to bury people? You can use a boring drill to make the hole in the ground and bury people standing up, which is usual in some religions.”

Fred didn’t quite get his wish to be buried standing up (being laid to rest today beside his late wife, Patricia, in a shared plot), but he will be buried in that specially-constructed cardboard coffin. The tube in question has a diameter of 650mm, and was made  from a mould for casting concrete columns. The cardboard – 12 sheets, each covered in a layer of water-proof glue – is more durable than wood.

It’s plain his children are proud of how their father lived, and how he left this planet.

“Dad died a multi-millionaire,” says his son, “but when he came back from the Royal Navy, he had nothing…”