DG Visit at Conwy Valley

Taken from the club president's speech:

One of the pleasures of being a President is an occasion like this is to be able to congratulate a fellow Rotarian in the work he has done. This Rotarian has not only done a lot for the Rotary Club of Conwy but is an excellent example to all others in how to follow the principles of Rotary.

The next few words will give a clue to the Rotarian I am talking about. I first met him in a bank in Conwy I was manager of the Castle Hotel at the time and we banked with the HSBC Bank. At the time I was also Chairman of Conwy Chamber of Trade and Richard’s predecessor, John Hackett, was my secretary. Obviously he had left when Richard took over so I talked him into taking over the job as secretary. In 1997 I introduced Richard Davis to Rotary. This was the time when businesses supported Rotary and encouraged their managers to take an active part in the local community.

As Richard’s background is banking he was a natural choice to be Treasurer of our club and after his successor unfortunately resigned from Rotary, Richard immediately stepped into the breach. Richard has held the position ever since. Richard has always supported all the activities the club has organised when ever possible.

Richard doesn’t just limit his good deeds to Rotary. Most of his career he has helped various organisations using his accounntancy background. Fifteen years ago he became Treasurer to the North Wales Scouting area. A position he as held until today. He did not just restrict himself to counting beans as he also helped the Scouts as an interviewer at District Level when they were interviewing candidates for leadership roles.

Now we come to Richard’s hobby which he was able to follow while in Rotary. GOLF. Richard is good at golf with a handicap nearly in single figures. His Rotarian golf partner is Bryan Allport one of our Honorary Member and it is Bryan who gave me details of his golfing prowess. So Richard you can blame Bryan. Richard and Bryan represented Rotary in Golf and Bryan remembers in the distant past Conwy sending 10 players to St Andrews to play in the Rotary Internationals and managed to win the Welsh Trophy on one occasion. The trophy is a silver Goat. Richard has now won it about 7 times. Unfortunately numbers going to play golf have dropped and the last few times Richard was the only Welshman at St Andrews. However his name is on the Goat, and Conwy’s name has been in St Andrews for many years now.