Harry Kartz

In later life, Kartz twice appeared on ITV’s 100 Year Old Drivers, firstly in August 2014, and then posthumously in September 2016. On 12 March 2016, Kartz died at the age of 102. He is survived by his sons, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Kartz also had a great love of horse racing, entering horses in the Derby and Arc de Triomphe; it was a “big win” in 1950 that was the catalyst for founded his engineering business.

In 1940, Kartz married Dorothy Cruse (1914–2012), and they were together for the next seventy-two years, until her death in 2012. The couple had two sons: John (born 1945) and Graham (born 1948).

In 1919, Kartz attended his first Aston Villa match, and a lifelong love of the club was born. In the 1950s, he struck up a friendship with Doug Ellis. In 1968, Ellis appointed him as deputy chairman on the new Villa board, when the club was taken over by Pat Matthews. Prior to his involvement with the Villa board, he was a part of the Villa Shareholders Association. In 1978, when Ellis had a boardroom feud with Ron Bendall, Kartz sided with the latter, and Ellis was ousted. Afterwards, Bendall persuaded him to become chairman of the club. Kartz would go on to have a good working relationship with manager Ron Saunders, until a transfer dispute over Mick Ferguson and Peter Withe meant that he would resign as chairman, arguing that harmony between chairman and manager was vital. He was replaced by Bendall, and became vice-chairman for the next two seasons, in which Villa won the First Division title and the European Cup. He left the board in 1983. His legacy at Villa is supported by the youth scouting network set up with Tommy Docherty, that brought Brian Little and Gordon Cowans to the club, and helping the club purchase Bodymoor Heath, which still remains their training base.

John Harry Kartz (23 October 1913 – 12 March 2016) was a British businessman best known for his longtime association with Aston Villa, having held various roles at the club, including as chairman from 1978 to 1980. Kartz also fought in the Second World War, as a front gunner in No. IX Squadron.