Page 13 - Friendships Through the Years

chapter, there was one person who knew quite a lot about Probus and how to form a
Club. The members of the Rotary Vocational Service Committee were Graham Pope,
Bernie Ratcliffe, Peter Walter, Gary Prattley, Ken Hawkey, Don Downie and the
Chairman was Derek Reeve-Cox.
Derek has an interesting history. An Englishman, born in Caterham, Surrey, he
became a member of the Rotary Club of Brigg, Lincolnshire. In 1975 he was appointed
Convenor to form the Probus Club of Brigg.
He immigrated to Australia in 1980, bringing with him a letter of introduction
from his Rotary Club, so that he could keep up his Rotary affiliation. He joined the
Lilydale Club the same year. Two years later he was asked if he would form a Probus
Club in Lilydale. (His fame in forming the Brigg Club had obviously spread abroad!)
Derek told the Club that he didn't think that a Probus Club would go well in Australia,
because there were too many other organisations to join, such as bowling, golf and
gardening clubs, plus, Australia’s beaches, and that generally people were too busy with
other things. Derek told Rotary that: ‘It wouldn't work’. (Famous last words.) Having
been prevailed upon, he said that he would ‘give it a go, but repeated that he wasn't
confident that it would be successful.
As Chairman of the Vocational Service Committee Derek became the convenor.
He did all the necessary ground work, put advertisements in the local newspaper and
generally made a good start, including receiving a number of replies to the
advertisements. However, at that time he was also involved in growing vegetables
hydroponically when, to use his own words, he ‘did his back and was flat on it for eight
weeks and was useless.’
So there was no Rotary, or Probus, for him, for nearly three months. Rotary was
anxious to keep the momentum of the formation going and enlisted Secretary Charlie
Arnold and Stan Moser to help out. Stan took on the task of sending out letters to
prospective members plus a number of other jobs.
Eventually Derek took over again and made a number of Vocational Service
reports to the Rotary members, and, as was mentioned earlier, was the initial Chairman at
the Inaugural meeting on 2nd June 1983. Eventually he handed over the Chair to the
incumbent President of Rotary, Colin Dean.
Derek’s part in the formation of the club was acknowledged at the first Probus
committee meeting, held a week after the inaugural meeting. At that meeting, a motion
was passed recommending that Derek be awarded an Honorary membership of the
Lilydale Club. This was passed unanimously. Stan Moser, as first president, “bestowed
Honorary membership on Derek Reeve-Cox for his services in commencing the Club and
presented him with his badge. Derek responded.” [Minutes of the first meeting dated
7/7/1983]
Derek remained an active member until he resigned in April, 1985. He moved to
Mornington, where he became even more involved in hydroponically grown vegetables.
He joined the Mornington Rotary Club and a Probus Club, too. As a Rotarian he was the
convenor of two Probus Clubs and formed both the Mt. Martha and Beleura Ladies
Clubs. In addition to that, he also assisted with four more Probus Clubs in the area. He is
still, at the date of writing, an Honorary member of the Lilydale Club, and as you will
read in a later chapter, he came back to Lilydale in December, 1997 for the re-enactment
of the inaugural meeting.