When Alan Fry opened an inconspicuous letter in the mail, he had no idea it would be to inform him he had been awarded with the prestigious honour of a Medal of the Order of Australia, for service to the communities of Leitchville and Cohuna.
“It was such a shock, I went completely white and then had to sit down for a minute,” Mr Fry said.
The shock soon turned to excitement and pride, although tinged with some sadness because his wife and number one supporter, Pat, was no longer here to share in the announcement and the joy.
“I couldn’t have been involved in half the things I did without Pat’s support, we were equal partners in everything we did,” he said.
Mr Fry’s list of voluntary service is long and extensive.
From decades of involvement with the Lions club on both a local and international level, to the Cohuna hospital, and just about every local community group from the swimming pool to the progress association — Mr Fry was either a committed supporter, committee member, or office bearer.
If there was a job to be done, he was the first person to put his hand up and he never cared what the job was — from cleaning toilets out at Kow Swamp to cutting wood, he was involved.
Always modest and quick to divert the attention away from himself, Mr Fry said helping the community was just something you did in a small country town.
“I grew up in a time where you just gave back and people were proud of where they lived and were happy to do the hard work to support each other and those who had fallen on tough times.”
He said some of his fondest memories involved the Leitchville Lions Club and their voluntary work.
“Each district had a foundation and the district governor could help people out who had fallen on tough times.”
Mr Fry served as deputy district governor in the mid-1980s.
And while there were many rewarding moments, he said supporting children with a disability through the Children of Courage project stuck in his mind, along with the Youth of the Year program which he was chairman of for seven years.
“Wood day was always a big deal. We would head out to the bush and cut and deliver wood to the elderly who were always grateful.”
He said promoting Australia Day was always one of the premier events for the Lions Club and the town.
In 1988 Mr Fry was awarded Life Governor of the Cohuna and District Hospital after serving on the board for 18 years, two years of which he was president.
Mr Fry was initially approached to join the board by Len Norman who was retiring at the time.
“Len thought I was not a bad sort of a bloke and I thought I would give it a go. Back then the board used to raise as much money as they could for the hospital, now it’s all changed to government grants,” he said.
Mr Fry said another local Leitchville highlight was when the community took on the operation of the local bank after Westpac decided to close its doors.
“Keeping a banking service in the town was important to us all and the community really came together on that one.”
Having spent his life in and around the Leitchville area and now in his 90th year, Mr Fry said it was never a chore to help the community and his hometown.
At 13 he left school to work on the family farm.
At 21 he was offered a share farming role but had to be married – already engaged to Pat the couple had just six weeks to get married.
“We pushed the wedding forward and started our farming journey. Together we scrimped and saved up a few bob to put a deposit on our own farm which we had for seven years before we decided to sell,” Mr Fry said.
Coincidently at the same time, the business A&L Gow in Leitchville was up for sale and in 1966, Mr and Mrs Fry and their five children, Marilyn, Bronwyn, Geoff, Neil and Jane, became the proprietors of the local agricultural business.
AT&P Fry Farm Supplies became the heart of Leitchville and the family operated the business for the next 48 years.
Mr Fry said it had been sad to witness the change in Leitchville, particularly over the past two decades.
“We had the biggest cheese factory in the southern hemisphere in our town and we were once a thriving dairy centre. Now there wouldn’t even be one 10th of the farms there were back then.”
Mr Fry has retired to Cohuna and is still volunteering, currently helping out at the neighbourhood house looking after the garden.
Sworn to secrecy ahead of the King’s Birthday celebration, Mr Fry said he couldn’t wait to share the news of the OAM with his family.