Mrs Kathleen Huffer |
An
appreciation of the service given by Mrs. Kathleen Huffer, The first Bulletin edited by Mrs. Huffer was Vol.l, No.2 for July 1970 and she has since continued to produce 5 issues each year until her retirement in December 1999, a most remarkable achievement.
She accepted the task and from that time the small
newsletter grew from a 4-page newsletter into an interesting 18-page collection of
historical items, reports, news, etc., now under the name of the "Bulletin",
which is mailed to members far and wide across Australia. Kathleen has been a meticulous
editor, ensuring that dates and names were accurate and spelt correctly and historical
facts were checked for authenticity wherever possible. In addition to editing the Bulletin, she authored "A History of Loy Yang, 1844-1978" (published 1979) for our Society and "A History of Gormandale" (1982) for the Gormandale Centenary Committee, as well as compiling a history of Hazelwood North, and a family history of the Baines family of the Mirboo North district. These works have all enhanced the reputation of the Society and, indeed, publication of the Loy Yang book was a major turning point in our own history, providing a sound financial base for our prosperity. Other undertakings have been to write the Introduction and captions for the "Tableau Through Time", give addresses at our meetings and to other community groups and arrange for other speakers and the C.W.A. drama group to make presentations at our meetings. The amount of time and skill required to do all these things is possibly not fully appreciated by our readers, but many, many hours of writing and editing are required to prepare material for printing, not to mention numerous phone calls, visits and visitors, correspondence, reading and research to elicit and check information. Mrs. Huffer was made a Life Member of our society in March 1980, she was awarded the R.H.S.V. Award of Merit in June 1998 and was presented with a Certificate of Recognition of Service by our Society in December 1999 We give her our sincere thanks for her great contribution
in recording and presenting our history as well as playing a leading role in the Society,
and we wish her success in the many projects that she is currently working on.
We
record with regret that Mrs. Huffer died on June 1st 2000 |
Kathleen Huffer was nominated for
membership by Mr. Bill Cuthill and she and her husband, Hilbert, ioined the Society in the
late 1960s. It was not long before we were looking for an Editor for the newsletter and,
once again, Bill Cuthill nominated Kathleen. 