A Tribute To Jon Taylor – Longest Serving AusDBF President
Comments(0) Article written by Kel Watt and published as a tribute to Jon Taylor:
Jon Taylor
13th October 1952 – 17th December 2008
The problem with trying to recognise the remarkable and extraordinary contribution of Jon Taylor when he was in the room, was that he was a man who prided himself on his ordinariness and his achievements as being too humble to deserve much fanfare. His passing away from illness, and his final farewell in December, has given the Australian and international dragon boating community an opportunity to finally speak freely and without interruption about the tremendous debt we owe Jon, and about the tenacity and vision of a man
which has moulded our sport and community.
Jon Taylor spent most of the last two decades as a central figure in NSW and Australian dragon boating. When he stepped aside as President at the AusDBF April 2008 AGM, he left an organisation that had grown a sport from being obscure and novel, into one that oversaw a successful, vibrant sporting community all paddlers were proud to be part of. His final act as President was to announce the awarding of AusDBF’s first life memberships to three people who had been in the trenches with Jon for many difficult and testing years, as they rebuilt and rejuvenated the sport – AusDBF’s first President Trevor Huggard, Ray Leung from Sydney, and Les Williams from Canberra. A couple of days later as the 2008 Australian dragon boat championships came to a close, I recognised how hard it would be to fill his shoes, but that – thankfully – his work and efforts meant the Federation’s and sport’s future was one of endless positive possibilities. To acknowledge that, the new AusDBF board’s first official action was to be the awarding of life membership to Jon. The crowd cheered and applauded (lasting that little bit too long for Jon’s liking) and then anyone who had known Jon nodded their heads in agreement that it was a well-deserved honour.
Add a Comment
