RON BURWOOD – 1994

At the AGM held in the Yarralla Scout Hall on 20th July, 1994 Chris Lowe presented his nomination of Ron Burwood for Life Membership. His motion read as follows:-
“Ron joined the Club in the late seventies. In the early part of the eighties he became a member of the Race Committee. From this start he moved on to become Heron Class Captain for several seasons before being elected President, which office he held for 3 years. The following season saw Ron become Commodore which he did for one year before starting another term as Club President. No matter what position Ron has held his preparation and dedication to the job at hand has made him a model for the Club.

Through his association with R. Gunz Photographic our Club has gained valuable sponsorships. These include sponsorship of our rescue boat, a JH-8 training boat, a series for Heron Class boats, along with encouragement awards. Gunz also regularly donate cameras as prizes for raffles run by the Club. I believe we, as a Club, have gained much from Ron and making him a Life Member would be an honour he richly deserves.” This was seconded by David Loring and was supported with comments from several members, it was carried unanimously.

In regard to the sponsorship for the series for the Heron Class, commencing for the 1981/82 season, from his employer this continued after his retirement until 2001/02 when the Gunz Company ceased trading. Later Ron also managed to get Schenker & Co (Gunz’s freight forwarders from Europe) to sponsor some of our training boats.

Ron’s first role in CRSC was as a Race Committee member in 1983/84 and he has been on the Management Committee in some position since 1984 when he became the Heron Class Captain until 1989. He has had 3 terms of 3 years each as President as well as 1 year as Commodore (1992/93) between his 1st and 2nd period as President.

From 1996 until 1999 he held the position of Assistant Treasurer taking it back from 2002 until the end of 2022; in addition he was Member Protection Officer for 4 seasons from 2003 until 2007. In May 2008 he filled the void of Archivist as no other volunteer could be found and has continued on in this role. He was also a regular in assisting on most Wednesday afternoons during the 2 years CRSC was supervising sailing for the Seventh Day Adventist School. In addition, for some 20 years he could be found cooking at the barbeque for all types of functions but over the past few years has relinquished this role to son, Craig. Also assisted at working bees around the Club House.

Ron has also written many articles about the Club and its history for Up The River and also for the past 30 years he has compiled the statistics relating to sailing for each season, reporting with his thoughts on these in articles in each of the Presentation Day issues of Up The River.

From 1994/95 season our Club started supporting the Leo and Jenny Foundation for Cancer which is now known as Cure Cancer Australia Foundation by holding a Sail For Cancer Race day each season. Since we began this Ron has taken over the responsibility of organising same and CRSC is proud of what has been raised over the years. He relinquished this role at the end of the 2022/23 season. 

In November, 2006 someone outside the Club nominated Ron for his work within the Club and was awarded with the Commonwealth of Australia’s “Celebrating Seniors Recognition Award” recognising voluntary work by seniors in the community of Bennelong, this being presented to him by Prime Minister, John Howard, in December, 2006.

Until 2009 he still occasionally sailed his Heron, #10100 “SEAHORSE”, but at the age of 72 years he selected the days on which he ventured on the water – no longer as keen on heavy weather sailing as he had been years ago. In 2009 after Bruce Dunlop could no longer get down each week, Ron commenced helping out with the finishing and was appointed to the Finishing Panel for the 2010/11 season and has continued in this role.

On the personal side Ron is proud of what his son, Craig, and his wife, Sonia have contributed on a continuing basis to CRSC and also that his grandchildren and now great grandchildren also enjoy their sailing. Until the season of 2021/22 Ron was still involved continuing as Assistant Treasurer (23rd year) but for the following season he decided not to continue in this role.

For the current season 2023/24 Ron is still involved continuing as Archivist (16th year), Finisher (14th year) as well as compiling the statistics (35th year).