Lawton was a member of the Club for some 47 years, made an Honorary Member a few years ago, and an enthusiastic member of the Balwyn Group. He contributed generously in so many ways to the Club and its activities.
In particular, he is remembered as team leader of the ‘Paint Your Heart Out” project some years ago in support of pensioners in Richmond.
He was witty, a great raconteur, loyal and, together with Lyn, a wonderful host. Several members visited him a few weeks ago to celebrate his 98th birthday, and he was certainly in good form, spinning a yarn in his inimitable fashion.
Lawton's Citation reads: "Lawton was inducted into the Club in May 1971 – 47 years ago. At that time, he was the Managing Director of the company founded by his grandfather – Sidney Cooke Ltd – manufacturers of fasteners. Like many family companies, Lawton started at the bottom and worked his way into the MD position, where he demonstrated his life philosophy and that of the company – helping to bring together various people in the community. At his induction he was already active in helping the community in the neighbourhood where his business operated, through establishing and financially subsidising the Brunswick Creche and Brunswick Youth Centres.
In his long life – he was 98 at the time of his passing – Lawton lived by the creed of helping keep together people in our community. This is exemplified by his service to the Community Welfare Committee throughout his time in Rotary. His value systems resonated with concern for those who needed to be kept together, whatever the source of their misfortune.
To meet with Lawton was to find someone who was interested in your welfare. He would subtly seek to see if there was something he could do for your benefit. His creativity in finding solutions to problems never waned and it seemed that he had a youthful outlook for every situation.
His colleagues in the Balwyn Group, of which he was a stalwart member, looked to him as a source of great friendship and wisdom.
From 1982 to 1987 Lawton chaired the Camberwell Grammar School Building Fund Appeal, which raised $1 million for rebuilding and extensions.
During the 1990s Lawton was probably best known as the public face of Rotary’s successful ‘Paint Your Heart Out’ project. Working through churches and community welfare groups in the inner eastern suburbs, Lawton would identify suitable needy people and properties to be the beneficiaries of our Club’s renovation program. Lawton would work out the paint quantities and other materials needed and would order, collect and deliver these to the sites, as well as organise and lead the volunteer painters, provide lunches and refreshments and then return all the equipment when the job was completed. In 2001 Lawton was awarded the Sir John Reid Community Service Award for his work on ‘Paint Your Heart Out’.
Lawton was awarded a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Club of Melbourne in 2005 as recognition for his work over several years in arranging for the purchase of the Coonil Hospital for Alcoholics, and for taking an active, hands-on role as Chairman and in the day-to-day management of the Hospital in conjunction with the Alcohol and Drug Foundation. It was also for his work with the Drug Addicts Centre at Christ Church St. Kilda which was battling for prostitutes, drug addicts, the homeless and the disadvantaged in the area. This became a major project of the Community Welfare Committee in 2000-01 with Lawton as champion for the cause.
Lawton was made an Honorary Life Member of the Rotary Club of Melbourne in 2009 and a Sapphire PHF followed in 2011.
Lawton had an important collection of significant historical documents and he took great care in determining the competence of institutions to provide long-term preservation. For example, he had many original documents on Australian Rules Football that were donated to the Melbourne Cricket Club’s Gallery of Sport.
He was an active member of St. Michael’s Church in Melbourne city and drew strength from his involvement in their community service both within and outside the Church. Before Lawton joined the Rotary Club of Melbourne he was already practising ‘Service Above Self’. In Rotary he became an expert at it!
