The former head of Northern Ireland’s buses, best known for carrying bombs off his company’s vehicles, has died.
Werner Heubeck (85) headed Citybus and Ulsterbus for two decades since the mid 1960s. He died today having fought cancer for some 30 years.
Born in Nuremburg, Germany in 1923, he was conscripted and fought with the Luftwaffe in the second World War before he was captured and spent the remainder of the war working in a prison in Louisiana.
After the war Heubeck worked as a translator at the war trials in his home city before moving to Britain where he met his wife.
While working in Scotland he saw a press advertisement for the Ulsterbus job and, despite knowing little of public transport, applied and was eventually appointed managing director.
He put both companies on a profitable footing but the Troubles which broke out in 1969 provided new challenges.
Not expecting his staff to do anything he would not do himself, he became best known for occasionally driving buses on dangerous routes and for personally removing explosive devices from vehicles in an all-out effort to keep transport moving.
Frank Clegg, Translink’s current general manager said: “He was a very inspirational leader, a man for his time.”
“He was a very brave man, equally a very clever man.”