Champion Gold Coast surf lifesaver Peter Lacey’s legacy lives on 20 years after his tragic passing

ADAM Lacey isn’t one bit surprised we want to talk about his dad. “We’re constantly reminded of him,” says the son of Peter Lacey, the legendary Gold Coast surf lifesaver and property developer who died 20 years ago today.

Peter Lacey won 47 medals, including 18 gold, at 22 consecutive Australian Surf Life Saving Championships from 1963-84.

ADAM Lacey isn’t one bit surprised we want to talk about his dad. It’s been that way for the past two decades.

“We’re constantly reminded of him,” says the son of Peter Lacey, the legendary Gold Coast surf lifesaver and property developer who died from a cardiac arrest 20 years ago today.

“It does blow me away. Just in my business life I run into so many people who knew him in some way, shape or form and it’s just very humbling to be the son of someone so well thought of on the Gold Coast.”

Ann Lacey and son Adam with the Surfers Paradise statue of their legendary husband and father, Peter Lacey, who died 20 years ago today. Photo: Jerad Williams

As you’d expect from a man immortalised in bronze on the Surfers Paradise foreshore, Lacey was one of the best.

He snared 47 medals, including 18 gold, at 22 consecutive Australian Surf Life Saving Championships from 1963-84.

He was highly regarded in the business community as a chief executive for the likes of Jim Raptis and Sunland’s Soheil Abedian.

He was a loving husband to Ann and devoted father to Adam and Kate.

As well as an elite sportsman, Peter Lacey forged a successful career in property development.

Then, aged 50, he was gone.

“If anything ever buggered me for a long time, it was that,” fellow Coast icon Billy James says of losing the friend he had had since he was a teenager.

“I’ve never told anyone that but underneath it absolutely set me back on my heels and plenty of blokes went through the same.

“Lacey was just an out-and-out champion ... as a fella, his word was his honour. He was just a fantastic role model for anyone.”

Peter Lacey’s 1997 funeral was attended by many of the Gold Coast’s most well-known sporting, business and political identities.

That included son Adam, who these days runs his own property development firm but was a 17-year-old when his hero died.

“Dad was young and had so much more to offer in life and to see the devastation it had on our family was quite taxing,” he recalls.

“But as time’s gone on, (these anniversaries) are more a celebration of his life … Dad’s always been in the back of my mind in the way I live my life. I want to honour his memory as best I can by living my life to the fullest and being a solid man like he was.”

Peter Lacey, centre, attended Queensland's first Sport Star of the Year awards in 1968, along with rugby league ace Wayne Abdy and Olympic swimmer Joanne Barnes.

Lacey’s name lives on in the countless sporting awards named in his honour. He’s a member of the Gold Coast Sporting Hall of Fame and, of course, there’s that statue.

“I think it’s wonderful,” James says of his mate’s legacy.

“Here we are, 20 years later, still talking about him. He was a cut above and they’ll still be talking about him long after you and me are gone.”