Members mourned the death of our member and colleague Ian Jones at the Rotary meeting 5 July.
Below is the announcement prepared by Club Archivist Bruce Davidson and delivered by President Chris.
Ian Jones was born in Bendigo in 1948 and was educated at Brighton High School, Monash University and RMIT. When he joined the club he was given the classification Building Technology and his expertise included acoustics, vibration, thermodynamics and wind engineering. He was then a Director of Vipac Engineers and Scientists Ltd., and his professional involvement included serving as Chairman and Secretary of the Mechanical Engineering Branch of the Institution of Engineers Australia.
Ian quickly became an integral part of our Club when he was inducted in November 1988 on the nomination of Les Perrott. In his first year with the club, in what seemed like a wave of pent-up energy, Ian was Deputy Chairman of both the Club’s Interact and Peer Support Committees, Captain of the Malvern Group and was the Home Host of Nicole Miller, incoming Exchange Student from Canada. His wife Lesley, a General Practitioner in a busy medical practice coped with all this-- as well as with son Morgan who was then just 8 months old! His enthusiasm and work ethic with the club never wavered.
In 1992 Ian was relocated to Singapore and our loss was to benefit of the Rotary Club of Singapore. Since rejoining our Club in March 1997, Ian served on the Youth Exchange Committee for 10 years, four of them as its Chairman, three years on the Shell Livewire Committee and he had three terms as Captain of Malvern Group. Over this time, he was intimately involved in the detailed planning needed to select and safely place nine outgoing students in overseas countries.
More remarkably Ian, with Lesley and their sons Morgan and Warwick were Home Host Family to nine incoming overseas exchange students. Together Ian and Leslie have housed, fed, guided, counselled, chauffeured, and holidayed these students and their massive contribution has underpinned and been a mainstay of our Club’s Youth Exchange program.
In March 2008 Ian and Lesley were jointly recognised as Paul Harris Fellows for the exemplary contribution they made through Rotary Youth Exchange and the critical difference they have made in advancing international understanding among young people. Ian was a Paul Harris Fellow with multiple sapphires due to his generous support of the Rotary Foundation.
Ian will be resoundingly missed by the club for his energy, enthusiasm and acumen in achieving our goals and good work. More so he will be missed by his friends, colleagues and Rotary workmates for his enthusiastic friendship, social involvement, loyalty and fellowship.
A memorial is planned for Monday 10 July at 11am Kooyong International Tennis Club, 489 Glenferrie Rd, Kooyong.
