VALE – IAN ANGUS OAM, PHF
8 January 1931 – 3 November 2021
Ian Angus was one of 39 Charter Members of our Rotary Club which was chartered on 1 May 1987 and originally called The Rotary Club of Port Phillip-Melbourne. Ian’s classification was “Education-Technical”. He was aged 56 at the time.
Ian quickly became a member of the Community Service (CS) Committee which, inter alia, took a keen interest in assisting the North Melbourne Day Centre for Frail Aged. With Ian as Director of the CS Committee in 1988/1989, the Club provided funds towards the purchase of a minibus for the Centre. He continued as CS Committee Director in 1989/1990 under President Herb Greenwood and, ahead of his time, Ian took up the District environmental project of “Trees for Survival”.
1990/1991 saw Ian as Director of Vocational Service which Committee introduced the idea of mentoring to our Club. He also introduced the “Industry Visit” activity, the first being a behind-the-scenes visit to the RACV Centre at Noble Park followed by a subsequent visit to Epworth Hospital.
Ian had a special interest in Technology (understandably so given his engineering background and 35 years spent at RMIT from where he retired as Vice-Principal of the Technical College in 1988) and arranged a further industry visit to the Channel 7 headquarters at Docklands. These visits were a great success for many years. He also found time to be involved with radio 3RRR which was associated with RMIT.
Ian continued his active service (including Bulletin Editor during 1994/1995) and was the 3rd recipient, in 1995, of the Rotarian of the Year Award bestowed by then-President Tom Callander. As Tom said at the time, “Ian participated in everything in a quiet way...he was always there to help”. Two years later, Ian was awarded a Paul Harris Fellow Recognition at the Club’s 10th Anniversary celebrations.
Our Club was the beneficiary of Ian’s skills, expertise and gentleness for another 18 years before he retired in 2015 and became an Honorary Member.
Outside of Rotary, Ian had many other interests. He lost his wife, Judith, to cancer in 1979 and brought up his 2 daughters, Caroline and Fiona, whilst holding down his very responsible RMIT position. He moved from Doncaster to East Kew in 1996 and this seemed to be about the time when new interests blossomed. He took up skiing and regularly flew to the New Zealand Ski fields, he took up golf and bike riding and he was also a regular swimmer at the Kew Recreation Centre.
Finally, Ian was very much a committed Christian. He was a weekly attendee at the Collins Street Baptist Church and Treasurer for many years.
Ian was awarded an OAM on 26 January 2006 for his service to electronic engineering education, particularly through the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and to the community.
A life of 90 years well-lived Ian, a true gentleman. It’s been a pleasure to have known you.