An excellent obituary to Ian Constantinides appeared in the Guardian on 28 May. To visit, click here 

Ian Constantinides, the founder of St Blaise, the conservation business, in 1982 and later Ebenezer Presents, a series of lectures, has died. The funeral is being held on 4 May at 3pm at North Curry Church, Somerset.

St Blaise (named after the patron saint of builders) ran ito financial difficulties and was closed in 2002. Many of the employees were saved from redundency by Stonewest, the Coydon-based stone company, which aslo resurrected the name in 2003. Under Stonewest and the guiding hand of Nick Wilson as Managing Director, Ian continued to work for St Blaise, which traded successfully until closing down when Stonewest went into Receivership in 2011. The name of Stonewest was only temporarily absent from the market but not so St Blaise this time.

After St Blaise, Ian was the inspiration behind Ebenezer Presents, a series of lectures on the subject of history and conservation. He was always a vociferous champion of conservation and once presented a series of programmes on the subject on television. 

He was a flamboyant character who owned a deconsecrated Baptist chapel in Somerset, which he called Ebenezer Chapel. He said he had been able to buy the chapel cheaply because other people found "something not 'nice' about living with gravestones round you", as he explained to the Independent newspaper in an interview in 1999.

Ian leaves a widow, Sarah, and children Bede, Alexei, Mimi and Alice.

He died of cancer at St Margaret's Hospice, Yeovil, on 15 April surrounded by family and friends.

Anyone wanting to attend the funeral is asked to contact Sarah at sarah@buscottfarm.co.uk so she has a rough idea of numbers. The family would like to encourage donations to St Margaret's Hospice, who looked after Ian so well.