Furniture provider Europa International has announced that MD Steve Murphy has passed away.
The company has released the following statement:
“After a courageous encounter with the big C (or the Small c in this case) we are devastated to announce that we lost Steve Murphy – aka ‘PapaSmurf’, and the head honcho here at Europa International – who passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday evening at St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham, surrounded by his devoted wife Jayne, his son Stephen aka ‘Smurf’ and his two daughters Helen & Amanda….. The way he wanted it to be.
Put very simply we have lost a legend…… his inner strength and ability to maintain his usual flamboyant nature despite his circumstances, makes him a truly remarkable guy…. We were truly honoured to have called him our Director, Boss, Colleague, workmate or whatever else we knew him as (as he did have a penchant for jumping into dresses very quickly or being covered in body paint for our zainy campaigns), but most importantly he was our friend.
Whilst deeply saddened by the loss anyone that knows Steve will know that he left us with very strict instructions to keep our chins up and our eyes firmly set on the future; upholding the sense of fun and the commitment to customer service that has become synonymous with our business, and having a jolly good time whilst we’re at it… and so that is exactly what we will do.
After all we are a formidable collective unit and we will tread the path that he has set us on in his honour, with the same pride and gusto that came to him so effortlessly.
His chants of ‘229’ or ‘I’m free’ will be sorely missed in the office as he is genuinely unreplaceable, but you can rest assured that his ethos courses fervently through all of us and his memory thus lives on.
We thank you all for your continued support during this difficult time – customers and suppliers alike – whether you were a Sexy Beast, an Old Tart, Bloody Smashing or simply just called by your name by him!!
We will continue on in Papasmurf’s honour as an even more formidable collective unit with the same gusto, pride and enthusiasm that came so effortlessly to him…. He will be sorely missed but his legacy will ‘live on’ stronger than ever!
And because nobody says it quite like PapaSmurf himself, we’ll leave you with a few words straight from the horse’s mouth: https://www.europainternational.com/clients-530/.“
