FLAMBOYANT west Oxfordshire businessman Clifford Haines, who ran a water-skiing club near Witney, has died aged 89.

Mr Haines, of High Street, Standlake, died last Thursday. He had been suffering from dementia.

The Witney-born entrepreneur ran a building materials firm in the 1950s when he was living in London Road, Headington, Oxford.

But he became well-known in west Oxfordshire in the early 1960s when he started the Oxford Water-Ski Club at Hardwick Lake.

After Mr Haines formed the Witney Aquatic Company, at the 60-acre lake between Hardwick and Stanton Harcourt, he built a floating clubhouse on pontoons.

Mr Haines, who owned the lake and 180 acres at Hardwick Park, then built a house on an island in the middle of the lake, where he lived until the mid-1990s, when he was no longer able to make the frequent trips on a raft between the island and the mainland.

Mr Haines built his dream bungalow, partly made from railway sleepers, after gravel extraction stopped on his farmland at Hardwick Park.

He retired after suffering a stroke at the age of 70.

Mr Haines’s widow, Beryl Marrs-Haines, 72, said: “He was a flamboyant and well-known local character.

“He loved nature and had a great love of animals – he could often be seen walking his two dogs Kipper and Monday around the lakes.”

Mrs Marrs-Haines, who married Mr Haines six years ago, said: “He was a charmer and very charismatic – Lord Lichfield came to take his photo once and he taught the Duke of Kent to water-ski.

“Clifford was very generous and gave away more money than he kept for himself.”

Mr Haines leaves a daughter Judith, from a previous marriage. His sons Richard and Christopher, from the same marriage, are both deceased.

A family funeral is being held at Oxford Crematorium on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 10.45am, followed by a memorial service at St Bartholomew’s Church in Ducklington at noon.