Des Harvey’s first Rotary involvement at age fourteen was an invitation as Guest Speaker to Grafton Rotary with the topic of gemstones. This was surprisingly postponed at the last minute as the club had found a better speaker although was permitted to attend. The “better” speaker was the eminent Sir Leslie Heron, Chief Justice of NSW, after whom the Clarence River Jockey Club named “The Heron Handicap” and the Grafton Golf Club named “The Heron Cup”. The following week Des delivered his less anticipated presentation.
At circa age thirty, Des sold Bluefire Diamonds to Fiji and the buyer was a member of Rotary’s Suva Sunrise, which ironically met over lunch! Des attended on numerous occasions over many years.
In 1989 Des was inducted into South Grafton Rotary and after a short period that club sponsored Grafton Midday Club and Des became the inaugural secretary, and subsequently held positions until 1998 when inducted as President. One of the year’s highlights in his year was when two club members were awarded an international citation for introducing “Raffles without Prizes”.
Des attended a President Elect Training Session [PETS] in Boonah with other members and although arrived late, fortunately had an apology note from his mum. The following year when President, the club attended Conference in Warwick and received the award for the best attendance. That same year our club collaborated with Maclean club on two joint ventures. The first were two debates where the adjudicator erred in judgement so they were no longer pursued and the other was a joint Christmas party where eight-three attended.
Progressive dinners were popular and on one occasion raised $1200 for a Nigerian bore, however some members questioned the need as we already had some members that qualified.
As Bulletin Editor licence was given in the Four-way test, asking if it was “fair to all jewellers”, et.al. Unfortunately correction was slow and had not occurred by the time of the District Governor’s visit, although he was kind to this indiscretion.
Des was also Organising Secretary for the 2010 District Conference when Peter Robinson was District Governor; involved with Business after Hours, a collaborative event with Grafton Chamber; on the Carols by Candlelight committee for 2017-19 and received two Paul Harris awards.
Des always encouraged new members to visit other Rotary clubs whether travelling within or outside Australia.
(Unreliable memoirs in Rotary.) as supplied by the man himself.
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