Members Behind the Badge  -  Geoff Cawsey and Dulcie Heard

Meeting this warm couple at the Sugarbeat cafe on Langs road and walking down their memory lane was an absolute treat. Here’s the conversation with our charter member Geoff and his wonderful life partner, Dulcie.
 
1. Brief bio:
Geoff: I was born in 1942, in East Melbourne. I changed many schools in early years as my family moved around a bit. I lived early years in Albury in Brighton and went to Bentleigh West, circa 1952. My father was a foundry supplier and also managed scrap metals, my mother was home maker.  As an only child found, on reflection now I appreciate the privilege I had of growing up with both parents’ attention, while I do remember during childhood being desirous of the kind of relationship my friends shared with their siblings.
After I finished year 11, my father got sick and during this time was offered a position at W. Brown and Sons, when he couldn’t take the job, the company owner gave me the opportunity to be trained in the same role. I stayed with them for 7 years and learned a lot, after few years, I then decided to form my own company, and GM Causey Metals and Alloys came to being.
 
Dulcie: I am the middle child, and I think being in that position really taught me to stick up for myself. I was born in Western Australia, my parents had a wheat and sheep farm. I came to Melbourne to attend my friend’s wedding and landed up staying in Melbourne after marrying the best man. My husband passed away young due to complication after blood clot.
Geoff and I met in 1984 at Geoff’s cousins’ place.  We were both independent and working at the time.
Geoff has a son from his first wedding who’s now in Army and I had 2 sons. At the young age of 20, I lost my older son to an accident.
My younger son and family live close to us in Footscray, and between us we enjoy the pleasure of having 4 grandchildren. On the work front, I remember working at Coles in Moonee Ponds and to this day it was the best job, I held, the people, the friendships were all very special.
 
2. When did you join Rotary and why? Who asked you?
Geoff: In 1987, my manager who was a Rotarian at Doncaster, asked to create a club. We were
about 8 people at first who came together, but no one wanted to have lunch meeting, so we started
the first breakfast club meeting in Melbourne. For the first year, we used to get 12-14 people, but
during those days, we had to meet many criteria for members; they had to have a professional job
classification, no women were allowed and a minimum of 25 members were required. So, we started
nominal provisional club (Rotary club of Flemington Kensington) and a year later in 1988, through
canvassing the local area and with support from sponsoring club (Rotary club of North Melbourne)
we had 30 members.
I took on the offer and as it provided an opportunity to meet new people and I saw it as a good way
of learning to do new things together. For many years we met at the North Melbourne Football club.
 
3. What you have or do enjoy most about Rotary and what do you think has changed.
Dulcie: I was there with Geoff from the first meeting, I enjoyed meeting lot of people and  keeping those friendship have been most valuable for me.
Geoff: The highlight of my time at Rotary has to be the district Conference at Canberra in the year 2000, where we looked after more than 1200 delegates. We tried and did a lot of things not done before; one such event was organising a bus tour for delegates to visit the Sports Academy for lunch where each table seating was graced with a Para-Olympian for guest to interact with. We also had very distinguished and noted guest speakers, which met a great energy and appreciation.  The event itself was a 3 year of effort in making, Vance Hilton was the President that year and was assisted by a very committed 34+ members who all travelled to Canberra to make the event a success.
Dulcie: Vance had organised roses for display on each table, later while at the conference, we decided to put it them sale, and amazingly it all sold out, I remember bringing those roses back to Melbourne and then driving around the town delivering. It was a beautiful demonstration of Rotarian spirit in its own way. We always most looked forward to fellowship, we were blessed with lifelong friendships.
Another event that comes to mind is the BBQ, we organised at Flemington railway station at request of the council. The money we raised from the donation went to Blazeaid, who support farmers in rural Australia.
Most of the service came from someone having an idea and everyone working to make it possible. I remember how Allan Bruno had the idea of OP Shop in our drive up to Monkey Mia in Western Australia, and this is our success story.
Both: Rotary has been a great part of our life and though times are changing, needs remain.
 
4. Travel experiences you have enjoyed most
Geoff: My travel to Asian countries was an eye opener. I admired the Rotarians in India, some of them had little but they gave so much. In Dubai, I saw good and bad both.
Among all I reminisce fondly all the Rotary district conferences we attended, we used to make it a yearly commitment and had a wonderful time. Among the places, my trip to WA, Kimberly is the most cherished trip.
Dulcie: Along with all Rotary District conferences, my trip to Canada with my friend and Geoff’s cousin has been my highlight. I will come back to tell you more as I am now gearing up for a trip to Amsterdam with family end of this year.
 
5. In my spare time I like to:
Geoff: Afternoon Nanna nap (laughs), everyone should get a good siesta!
I am very much involved with Bowls and Croquet and you’ll find me there few days in a week. I also love watching movies, last movie I watched recently was Rio Grande, with John Wayne based on history of American civil war
Dulcie: I like to stay active, we have catch ups and get about most days in the week withvarious clubs we support.
 
6. If you could make one major change in society it would be:
Geoff: I would like to see a world with less of robberies.
Dulcie: I am very accepting of the changes..
 
7. Guess who is coming to dinner? Who would you dinner guests be?
Both: Grandchildren on their own (no parents ��)
 
8. What three things have you discovered that are most important in life?
Good friends; not to expect too much from everything you do and others; Staying active.
 
9. The Last word
We’ve enjoyed our 35 years in Rotary and very happy with time we’ve  had.