Sir Bruce Small: Gold Coast Mayor remembered fondly after his death in May 1980

Few Gold Coasters have had such a profound affect on the city as Sir Bruce Small. His impact on the city was celebrated after his death 45 years ago this week. HIS INCREDIBLE STORY

Few Gold Coasters have had such a profound affect on the city as Sir Bruce Small.

The two-term mayor and already lived an incredible life before he moved to the Gold Coast to become a property developer and become mayor.

His role in boosting tourism in the aftermath of the 1967 cyclone has been recalled recently during the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

Next week marks 45 years since the man who became known as Mr Gold Coast died.

Sir Bruce Small in the 1970s.

While many of todays Gold Coasters were not even born when Sir Bruce was mayor, his role in shaping the city has come into focus thanks to a recent biography of the two-term mayor written by Rachel Syers.

Sir Bruce died on May 1, 1980 at age 84, following a battle with cancer.

Upon his death, the Bulletin described him as “the most loved and sometimes the most criticised man the Gold Coast has ever seen.”

Sir Bruce died just two years after leaving city hall.

“He just closed his eyes and went to sleep … and then he went to heaven, it was a nice way to die. He just slipped away,” Pindara Private Hospital’s Matron Gwen Ramsay said of his final moments in a 1980 interview with the Bulletin.

Sir Bruce’s wife, Lady Small, son Kelly and grandson Roger were by his side.

His doctor, Glen Parker, told the Bulletin that Sir Bruce was aware he would not leave hospital during his last days.

“I knew he knew but he didn’t complain and he didn’t say anything,” Dr Parker said at the time.

“For weeks he had been refusing to be admitted to hospital because he knew it would be a one-way trip.

“When he agreed to go on Tuesday afternoon he knew the end was nigh.”

Sir Bruce Small.

Sir Bruce had cancer and it had been consuming him in his last years.

Tributes poured in for the former mayor and Surfers Paradise MP.

Close friend Sir Hubert Opperman called him “the greatest man I have ever known,” while Sir Bruce’s frequent rival, Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, called him one of Queensland’s “grandest citizens”.

“A man who set an example of determination and faith,” Sir Joh said.

Alderman Norm Rix, a political ally and friend, said the former mayor left a vacancy “that could never be filled”.

“As Gold Coast mayor, a council Alderman and MLA for Surfers Paradise, he served the community well,” Ald Rix said.

“Sir Bruce was successful in his own right in business, as an entrepreneur and development and great promoter of the Gold Coast.”

Among those who paid tribute to Sir Bruce were then-mayor Keith Hunt, deputy mayor Sir John Egerton, Liberal Party leader Dr Llew Edwards and fellow MP Peter White.

The late Sir Bruce Small was honoured as a Queensland Great. Pictured is Dr Anne Small and Sir Bruce's official biographer Rachel Syers. Picture: Luke Sorenson.

The day after his death, the Gold Coast Council held a minute’s silence.

Sir Bruce Small’s funeral was held the day after his death at Allambe Gardens at Nerang in a service led by a Salvation Army minister.

Both Deputy Prime Minister Doug Anthony and Finance Minister Eric Robinson attended while historian Alexander McRobbie wrote a tribute to Sir Bruce Small in the Bulletin.

“Yesterday the great dark jaws of death yawned open yet again and another leading actor on the Gold Coast stage made his final bow,” he wrote.

“If I had to name the single most memorable quality Sir Bruce Small possessed, it would be fervour.

“He had all the blazing zeal of a Calvinist missionary and the burning pyrexial fever of a man with a vision.

“His vision, which came to him rather late in life, was of a Gold Coast that would boom.”