The Independent is looking back at our best Friday features of last year, and this is one of them.
Les Cropley has worked hard both in his career and in his role as Lions Club member. Matt Hewson sat down with Les ahead of his trip to Boston in the United States, where he will be officially installed as Lions district governor for the Southwest-Barwon area of Victoria.
From New Zealand to Mount Isa, from Western Australia to India, Highton resident Les Cropley has travelled far and wide throughout his career, both as his own boss and working for large companies like Thiess Bros, BHP and Origin.
But wherever he’s found himself, the Lions Club has always been there.
“It’s one of the things about Lions; anywhere I was in the world, I was never lonely, never despaired,” Les said.
“I was caught over in Hobart one time when I was working and it was Christmas time, so I went selling the Christmas cakes we have. And these (Lions) people said ‘What are you selling cakes for here, you should be home’. So they invited me for Christmas dinner.
“In Western Australia I’ve helped them do barbecues over there, because I was in Perth at the time and they said come on down.
“In India, I’ve seen things most people don’t get to see because of Lions. It’s one of those things, no matter where you are in the world.”
The way Les tells it, he’s never spent much time sitting still.
Born in Preston, Melbourne, in 1944, Les was badly ill as an infant – “I had a bit of polio, wore irons on my legs and all that” – and under instruction from doctors his parents moved to the country for his health when he was four years old.
“An old doctor told my parents that, basically, I would not live for six months more if I stayed in Melbourne,” he said.
“My parents decided they couldn’t have me passing away, so they bundled me up and took me to Gippsland, to a place called Longwarry.”
After share farming in Longwarry for some years, the family moved to Cororooke, near Colac, before buying a farm at Barongarook in the Otway Ranges.
While his parents hauled all the belongings they could fit into their old Ute to their new farm, Les and his three siblings were tasked with droving their stock from Cororooke to Barongarook.
Soon after, Les, about to start grade six, decided to leave school and get a job as a trainee haberdasher without telling his parents.
“I’d been working there for three or four weeks, and we were sitting down to Sunday lunch and everybody got talking, my brothers and sister, about what they wanted to do.
“Then my parents asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I wanted to leave school. They said, well, get a job and you can. And I broke down laughing.
“They said ‘what are you laughing about?’ I said I already had a job but I’d been trying for three weeks to tell them.”
After a stint in the Colac haberdashery, Les became an apprentice tailor before becoming a television installer and repairer – “televisions were just starting then” – and then eventually a truck driver and heavy machinery operator.
After stints in Mount Isa, Brisbane and the Gold Coast operating “graders, dozers, loaders, cranes, you name it”, Les, now in his mid-twenties, moved with his wife Marlene back to Birregurra, where her family was from.
He began working for Pivot, driving face shovels, and soon became a supervisor. However, Les found that he’d hit a glass ceiling due to his lack of formal education.
“When I got promoted at the phosphate company one of them said to me, ‘We’d like to make you a manager but we can’t because you don’t have any letters after your name’,” Les said.
“Then a bloke came up to me one day and said, ‘Les, would you come with me and meet some lovely people? I’ll pick you up and take you to dinner.’ And that was 39 years ago.”
Those ‘lovely people’ were Lions Club members.
With the encouragement of the Lions Club, Les attended night school at The Gordon, doing a two-year course in physics, chemistry and mathematics that he finished in 10 months.
After completing a training and assessment diploma at university, Les decided to start his own business, Safety Enterprises, again, with the encouragement of his fellow Lions Club members.
When his business was bought out by global oil and gas company TechnipFMC in 1998 he became one of its health, safety and compliance managers, working in Australia and abroad on major projects such as the construction of natural gas and hydrogen plants.
Since becoming a Lions Club member, Les has worked on many different projects to help his community and those across Australia and the world.
Among other things, Les has been involved with the Lions Cord Blood Foundation, a long-term project aiming to provide an accredited and safe bank of stem cells for new types of cellular therapies such as retinal repair, muscle and nerve repair.
He also cites the In the Cockpit, an annual event run in conjunction with the Royal Geelong Yacht Club that gives people with visual impairments the opportunity to sail in Corio Bay, as one of the most enjoyable things he’s been a part of through Lions.
“It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve seen; it’s a small thing but it’s big,” Les said.
“Oh, you see their faces when they come back, they’re just smiles and laughter. That’s what Lions is all about, giving people some hope and life.”
After two years as governor-elect of his district, Les travels to Boston in June for his formal investiture as district governor, a role which he enjoys immensely.
“This district is one of the most fantastic districts around and it’s the second-highest in Australia for donations of money to help its communities,” he said.
“My role … I never wanted to be the boss, but I want to be a motivator. I’ve got some magnificent people on the team who are doing some magnificent stuff, and I want to show them that old people like me, with the help of young people, can move mountains.
“We’ve got a junior speaking program, and man, some of those children just blow you away. I’ve heard them talk about Martin Luther King and what he did, I’ve heard somebody else talk about Geelong having (James Harrison) the maker of fridges, it’s just brilliant.”
Although Les lost his wife to cancer four years ago, he has since found love again with his new partner Deb Stallard.
“I’m a very lucky man, I had a lovely wife who gave me three lovely girls, now I’ve got six grandsons, so I couldn’t ask for more,” he said.
“Deb is president this year, she also loves everything Lions do and we travel everywhere.
“We’ve each had our issues, but we get on really fabulous. We have lovely families and we really enjoy life, so as far as we’re concerned we’ve got what we want.
“And as long as I’ve got Lions I’m extremely happy and really proud of what I can achieve.”
For Les, Lions has given him the opportunity to help others find their way to a better life, just as he did.
“There was a bloke who’d never been to school and I got him a job,” Les said.
“He contacted me 12 months ago, he’s now president of a Lions Club in New Zealand and owns a business.
“I feel really proud, not only about him but everyone I’ve helped along the way. It’s given my life meaning.”
