Welch, Patrick William
1927-2013
Birmingham businessman, born on 12 August 1927 and educated at King Edward's School, Edgbaston. A keen evangelical from his school days, when he began a lifelong practice of tything, he became a Methodist in 1954 and was a very active member of Acocks Green Methodist Chuch. He entered the family business, Welconstruct, and became its chief executive, building it up to be a leading industrial firm. He established the Welconstruct Trust, which supports a wide range of charities and took an active interest in Radio Birmingham. He was High Sheriff of the West Midlands in 1987-8.
He has served on a number of Connexional Committees, including General Purposes, Stationing and Membership; was treasurer of the Wesley Deaconess Order, a governor of the Queen's College, and chairman of the managers of the Ladywood National Children's Home. As a local preacher he combined utter dedication with a lively originality and a sense of humour, both of which found expression in his Christmas cards. He was much involved with the Methodist Art Collection. He was Vice-President of the Conference in 1979.
He died on 30 December 2013.
'Pat Welch redeems the word "pious" by his Christ-centred living at the heart of the commercial industrial scene, where he tries to embody faith in the life of a firm with a turnover of millions of pounds… He has built into his firm the principle that those who earn the profits should be responsible for deciding about the outgings of the firm's tithe. This is true integrity.'
Chris Hughes Smith, in Methodist Recorder, 26 April 1979
- Methodist Recorder, 26 April 1979, 21 June 1979, 4 July 2014