Dr Rod Jolly joined the Rotary Club of Carlingford in June 2001, an organisation in which he was to be actively involved, up until about 2 months ago.
His initial role on the Board of Directors came within 3 years, as the Community Service Director and in the following year as Youth Service Director. He became Club President in 2007 – 2008 and under his leadership that year, the Club was awarded a Presidential Citation for “demonstrating how Rotary shares its talents, skills, energy and resources in order to create a better world”. Rod subsequently served 4 more terms on the Board of Directors, as Club Service Director, Community Service Director again and twice more as Youth Service Director, where his passion lay. In 2011 - 2012 he served our Rotary District, covering Rotary Clubs north of the Harbour and the Central Coast, in the position of International Service Chairman and in 2014 attended the Rotary International Convention held in Sydney that year.
Another longstanding role at our Club for 12 consecutive years was as a Day Treasurer at our weekly Sunday Market at North Rocks, which was scheduled so as to not clash with his Sunday commitments at St John’s Church Beecroft.
Rod was very passionate about the Rotary Youth Exchange program and his encouragement led to a number of girls from Tara applying successfully to spend 12 months overseas in a different culture. He and wife Neg have also hosted some of our inbound Rotary Youth Exchange students, providing them with a home for 3 months. For many years, Rod was our very polished Master of Ceremonies at our Annual Returning Youth Exchange Student Dinners held each February at the Muirfield Golf Club where he entertained all of us at suitable intervals throughout the night with his vast collection of Dad jokes.
Rod was someone who could be relied on at a moment’s notice to run our weekly meetings or offer a vote of thanks for our guest speaker, as well as being a generous donator of high-quality red wine to be used to raise funds.
Rod remained positive after his operation last year and told me that he was intending to return to teaching at Tara once he was able to drive again. Sadly, that did not occur. He will be greatly missed by all of us.
Rest in peace Rod. Our deepest condolences to Neg and family.