Don and his wife Helen moved to Lorne 20 years ago after losing their house at Aireys Inlet in the 1983 bush fires where they had been for 17 years.
Don, a teacher, held a range of appointments within the Department of Education including four years as the Regional Director of the Barwon, South West region that ran from Geelong through Lorne to Portland and up to Hamilton. Don then held a range of other senior appointments in Melbourne including Regional Director of Western Metropolitan Region, Director of Curriculum and Student Services and for a short time managed the position of Director of Schools.
Following his retirement, Don was appointed a Senior Fellow at The University of Melbourne which then led to working overseas. Don was Team Leader of a range of aid projects especially in Vietnam where they lived for extended times. Don worked for the World Bank, Asia Development Bank and for the governments of Wales, Samoa, United Arab Emirates and Ontario managing a range of national projects over a ten year period.
Don is the secretary of the Lorne Arts and Culture Foundation which is responsible for running and staging the Lorne Festival of Performing Arts (FOPA) and enjoys working with a very talented and hard working group of people. FOPA will run during the first weekend in September and he expects this year’s festival will be fun with a range of talented acts being held throughout the three day festival. Tickets are available through FOPA.com.au
He is also on the Lorne school’s Master Planning sub-committee where again, he cannot praise the talent and commitment of locals enough. The committee are looking to extensively redevelop and beautifying the Lorne school grounds and work should commence soon.
While having kept their house in Melbourne where they regularly look after grandchildren, they have enlarged their home at Lorne so that the whole family can be together for extended times.
