BILL Critch writes from California paying tribute to his mentor Bill Clegg:
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Although I’m a Yank born in California, I spent my formative years in Australia.
In 1948 and barely a teenager, I was orphaned and shipped to Boggabri, placed in the care of an unmarried sister who shortly after, married and left town.
In 1949 in Gunnedah and cut loose from adult supervision at age 15, I was taken under the wings of two families: the Jones and the Cleggs.
John and Violet Jones gave me a place to live while I finished my Third Year at Gunnedah Intermediate High School, and the Clegg family gave me a social anchor at St Joseph’s Church.
Bill Clegg became my older brother and my mentor – a job he took on many times during his lifetime of ‘picking up the strays’ and giving them the guidance so necessary in their formative years.
Bill never asked for payback; when thanked he seemed embarrassed.
His role in life seemed to be to help others less fortunate then he. Bill was a giver, not a taker.
I did not witness his public life after I left Australia in 1955, but letters from friends and clippings from the Gunnedah Independent Advertiser told of Bill’s ongoing love affair with Gunnedah, which absorbed all of his energies.
On the several visits my wife and I made to Gunny, we observed the great respect given Bill by all of our friends.
In his later years, Bill visited us in America and his talk was always about Gunnedah – the crops, the economy, the improvements in public facilities, and Gunny’s growing importance in the commerce of the North West Plains. He truly loved his hometown.
Bill phoned us every Christmas Eve and sang in his croaky voice he “wished us a Merry Christmas from old Gunnedah.” We shall miss his calls.
If Gunnedah still has the love for people that I experienced as a
boy, Bill will be remembered for his generosity and his heart as big
as the Aussie bush he loved so much.
Picking Up the Strays
Late last month, I lost a friend.
People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different.
People look at them with eyes that wonder when ...
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man dies.
Ogden Nash
