The Rotary Club of
West Perth

 

Vic became a Rotarian in 1958 when he joined the Rotary Club of Subiaco. In those days if you moved your place of employment you had to change your Rotary Club so he transferred to the Mt Lawley Club in 1963 and the West Perth Club in 1965 where he has been an active member right up until recently, our longest serving member or a Rotarian for 62 years, an amazing achievement.

 

Vic enjoyed his earlier days at Subiaco & Mt Lawley and made long term friends with some members of these Clubs being Daryl Hick and John Kuring who coincidently happen to be parents or in-laws of current members of our Club.

 

Vic served many roles within the club including as the International Director from 1969 to 1971, Vice President in 1971-72 and President in 1972-73.  He was presented with Honorary membership in 2001 in recognition of his many years of service to the club and our communities.  Vic was responsible for the Induction of many of our members throughout the 70’s through to the 90’s reciting the complete “induction charge” by heart – impressing even the most distinguished of our new inductees!

 

Vic served as our club Historian for many years, meticulously recording, as only Vic could, all the Club Officeholders for more than 50 plus years on a hand written ledger in his extremely neat hand writing.

 

Originally named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club of West Perth in 1984 Vic was again honoured as recently as last year.  He very proudly told the story to me of the fact that his daughter Barbara is also named a Paul Harris Fellow.  A man quiet on his own achievements but never too hesitant to share a story about his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

 

That pride extended of course to Joan, his wife and partner in life and in Rotary.  Joan put great energy into the Inner Wheel Club, and organisation for the wives of Rotarians.  Together Vic and Joan used to enjoy the volunteer work and socialising that they did through the Rotary Club of West Perth and the Inner Wheel Club.

 

Vic was a great mentor to new Rotarians over the years and always had a dearth of interesting stories to tell to guide Rotarians young and old.  He was always quick to volunteer whenever a need was identified and loved attending our weekly meetings and Club social functions - even as recently as our Changeover Dinner in 2019 (clearly to watch over the induction of the incoming President for the new Rotary year).

 

Such was Vic’s enthusiasm, he regularly attended Club weekends away, and when our families were young he used to tell our kids to call him Pop, so many of our kids who are here today were blessed with Vic’s humour and wise council as a “third Pop”. The kids were all very fond of Vic and would still attend recent Dinners arranged to celebrate Vic’s Birthdays, he was very talented in that he could easily communicate with anyone regardless of their age.

 

One of our members Guy Mattioli shared his recollections of taking Vic to the TAFE AWARDS, sponsored by our club for many years.  Little did he realise the impact Vic had in the development of this vocational training institution as Director with many people recognising Vic and sharing with him so many stories of the good old days.  Vic’s smile told Guy how much he loved being there.

 

Vic, was a wonderful person, a true Gentleman, a Rotarian who lived his life choosing to contribute greatly because he knew he could. He will be missed by all members, our families and all those blessed to encounter Vic’s endless spirit.