Lawrence Atley in Rotary
At the time of his 50 year Rotary Anniversary PDG John Davis summaried the Rotary Life of Lawrence.
Lawrence was born in Footscray and joined the RC of Footscray in April 1972.
He commenced his architectural practice in Footscray in 1970 and maintained a broad cross section of architectural appointments involving many education, municipal and institutional projects.
Lawrence has had a very distinguished Rotary career both at Club, District and the International level. Lawrence during his Footscray membership has had his hand in all the major projects of the Rotary club of Footscray, which have included The House of Friendship and The Society for the Aged. His community work has also extended past his Rotary involvement, with his Life Governorship of the Western General Hospital after 15 years of service, including 3 years as President and his active participation in the YMCA as a Board Member.
In 1989-90, Lawrence was District Governor and held his Conference in Canberra, with 1250 registrations. His appointment as District Governor was just a stepping stone to other responsibilities in Rotary.
His further appointments include:
From 1991-1993 Chairman of the Australian Vocational Committee and at the same time was District Foundation Chair.
Personal representative of 3 world Presidents at District Conferences at Nowra and Geraldton, the third world President he represented was Glen Kinross at a District Conference in the Philippines, you may remember that PRIP Glen Kinross returned the appointment as the RI Presidents representative at our Conference in Shepparton..
Later, Lawrence was appointed Regional Foundation Coordinatorfor Zone 8 from 1995 -97
He was Director of the Australian Rotary Health Research Fund from 1995-6 and from 1996-99 was a trustee of the Australian Rotary Foundation Trust.
Lawrence was also instrumental in my applying to be considered for the position of District Governor and I do thank him for his confidence in me that I could carry on the tradition of the two past District Governors in our club. My appointment however created 3 years of additional work for Lawrence and Margaret as he readily agreed to be the Conference Chair for the District Conference in Shepparton which was an outstanding success, he also agreed to act as my aide /advisor during the period leading up the 2007-8 year. While Lawrence is now living outside of the Footscray area his commitment to the club has not diminished as shown by the magnificent 75th Anniversary celebration of the RC of Footscray that Lawrence as Committee Chair arranged at the Melbourne Town hall on the 17th May last year. Without the drive of Lawrence I doubt whether we would have seen such a grand night.
In 1997 Lawrence received the Distinguished Service Award from the Rotary Foundation for his life time work in the service to others, this rarely presented award was only the third time a Rotarian in our District had received this award which was noted in Networker last week.
Lawrence also received in 2003 the RI Four Avenue of Service award. This award is only presented to Rotarians in good standing who have consistently demonstrated their support of the Objectives of Rotary through participation in service activities in each of the Avenues of Service ie Club Vocational, Community, International and New Generations.
The Lawrence and Margaret Atley Music scholarship is annual scholarship available to under 16 students who have shown promise in music studies the scholarship was initiated by the club in 2004 to recognize the contribution that both Lawrence and Margaret had made over many years to the RC of Footscray.
While Lawrence has received many International recognitions I believe he would value very highly the recognition his peer group within our club has made to him with a Paul Harris Fellow double Sapphire.
Congratulations Lawrence for a life of Rotary service at the Club, District and International levels.