Gerhard Husheer

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Johann Gerhard Husheer (26 July 1864 – 30 November 1954) was a New Zealand tobacco pioneer, industrialist and philanthropist. Born in Bremen, Germany, with Dutch roots, he became wealthy as the first to grow tobacco in Motueka. He spent much of his life in Napier. After the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, he asked architect Louis Hay to redesign the front of his National Tobacco Company Building in Napier, a landmark now listed as a Category I historic place. In 1956 Rothmans Tobacco Company bought the building.