Gympie mourns local legend Ron Lawrence

THE region is mourning a local legend after former ambulance superintendent and councillor Ron Lawrence passed away last week.

GYMPIE LEGEND: Ron Lawrence. Picture: Renee Albrecht

THE region is mourning a local legend after former ambulance superintendent and councillor Ron Lawrence passed away last week.

The Gympie Ambulance Station flew the Queensland flag at half-mast over the weekend after Mr Lawrence passed away peacefully late on Friday May 13, aged 87.

Gympie Station officer in charge Wayne Sachs said Mr Lawrence brought the ambulance service "into a new era of professionalism and training".

"You could say that Ron was a man ahead of his time in a number of respects," Mr Sachs said.

"We will all miss him. Another icon gone."

Mr Lawrence grew up in Brisbane, where he fell in love with his wife-to-be, Julia, when they were just 16 years old.

Ron was a boy scout at the time and Julia was the daughter of a scout master, so he said it was a match made in heaven.

Ron's love affair with mechanics was already in full flight by the time he moved from Brisbane and took a position as a fitter and turner in Darwin just after the bombings during the Second World War.

Darwin was an exciting time for Ron. He married Julia, who had followed him up to Darwin, in 1951, and he also spent time as a chauffeur to the Administrator, who for all intends and purposes was a virtual governor of the territory.

It was also in Darwin that he started work with the Fire Brigade.

After a brief few years in Charter's Towers, the couple and their three kids Gary, Diane and Robyn moved to Gympie and started on the road which would make them stalwarts of this community.

Ron started at the Gympie Ambulance station as an Officer/Mechanic in 1958 and after ten years had worked his way up to Superintendent.

He worked closely with the Gympie Ambulance Committee to improve standards, vehicles, equipment and building requirements when the station in Nash Street was expanded in 1978.

He and the Committee had vision for the future and bought the block of land on the corner of King and Alfred Streets, where the current station now stands.

In addition to his high pressure job, Ron was a member of the Jaycee's and then Rotary.

Soon after Ron's appointment as Super, the couple had their fourth child, Andrew and two years later, baby Jason was born.

This spurred Mr Lawrence to get involved with the scouting movement again.

He retired from the ambulance service in 1993 two years after the service went from being self-funded to being controlled by a government department.

He had served a total of 36 years in the ambulance service, 24 of those in charge at Gympie.

He ran for council the soon after he retired and became a councillor for Cooloola Cove, but gave it away after a single term because Julia was already an alderman and he felt one politician in the family was enough.

Mr Lawrence wanted to stay active in the community, so was appointed to the Gympie Hospital in a committee designed to follow up on complaints, but left four years later because he felt he couldn't bring any real change.

Mr Sachs described Mr Lawrence as a who visionary who commanded a loyal staff and "didn't suffer fools".

"His standing in the community was such that a great many community organisations saw fit to donate money to the ambulance service to ensure the smooth running of the service, which in those QATB days was all locally serviced and financed," Mr Sachs said.

He said Mr Lawrence was always a calm, polished and competent administrator of the service, as Superintendent under the old system from 1969 to 1991 and as Officer in Charge QAS from 1991 to 1993.

"He was responsible for giving many ambulance officers a start in their ambulance careers, including myself, in 1974," Mr Sachs said.

Mr Lawrence is survived by his wife Julia and their five children, 11 grandchildren and great-grandson.