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Reg Gordon
Reg Gordon died 9 January 2024. He was the Membership Officer for the Fremantle Workers Club from 2014, and had been the Secretary of the Fremantle Society 1983-1984, and a committee-member in 1982. In his working life he was a teacher of Mathematics. He lived in one of the Warders Cottages in Henderson Street for a number of years.
File:Freotopia clubs freoworkers images ctee2014.jpg
Reg (right) in 2014 with other officers of the Fremantle Workers Club. Photo courtesy of Bob Sommerville. Anne Hughes, the previous Membership Officer, is on the left.
Don Whittington:
Vale Reg Gordon
Reg Gordon, Life Member of the Fremantle Workers Club, passed away on Tuesday 9 January, aged 77. After surviving cancer for more than 15 years, he became very unwell from last September onwards and was hospitalized in November for a few weeks. He was discharged before Christmas and died at home.
Reg was already well known in Fremantle when he joined the Workers club in 2012, the year we re-opened the Henry Street premises. Later that year he was elected to the management committee and remained a committee member until late 2023 when he knew he was dying.
When Membership Officer, Anne Hughes, moved to Sydney in late 2014, Reg volunteered to take over this very important position. It was at the time the Club stopped operating in Henry Street and retaining members and recruiting new ones was a priority.
It wasn’t until January 2020 that the club had another permanent home on Fremantle Park. Reg remained membership officer through the challenging years without our own clubhouse. He continued serving until late 2023 when ill health meant he could no longer come to the club.
Reg was at the club every Sunday from set-up to close. We relied heavily on his support: signing up members, answering queries and ensuring the jackpot went smoothly, as well as setting up and closing. I've really missed his presence over the last few months, but Reg still assisted me with club business as much as he could from home.
Reg helped the club in other ways such as organizing AGMs and elections of the management committee and was an expert on our club's constitution. In addition, he assisted me with banking and other responsibilities of the Treasurer, and was renowned for his copperplate writing. He was also a competent administrator and organizer and our club was fortunate to have a member of the management committee who was so multi-skilled.
Most important of all, Reg was devoted to our club and at the last AGM in December 2023 he was awarded Life Membership.This was his dying wish because the club had been so important to him in the last eleven years of his life. Our members loved him and he remembered more of their names than anyone before him. Tributes are flowing in, not just from our members, but the wider Fremantle community. Reg will be greatly missed by us all and forever remembered for his massive contribution.
Reg was very proud of his son, Lachlan and besotted with his grandson, Ben, who is not yet one year old. His other dying wish was to be with Ben for his first Christmas and we're thankful he was able to enjoy that special day with Ben, Lachlan and his daughter-in-law, Pearl.
This Sunday (14 January) we will be remembering Reg at the Workers Club at about 2.15pm when the band has its first break. Please join us as we say goodbye to a man who gave so much to the Workers Club.
Don Whittington
President, Fremantle Workers Club, 2011-2023
Reg working on the restoration of Winter House, Johanna Street, North Fremantle, with other Fremantle Society members. From the Society's newsletter, Fremantle.
In the Workers Club in Henry Street with a couple of fellow bearded-fellows.
The Workers Club in Henry Street. In the centre is Jan Pearson, a fellow committee-member until 2013.
References and Links
as above
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 10 January, 2024 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/gordonreg.html (it was last updated on 13 January, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.