Vale Ken Falconer OAM 5/08/1942 - 17/03/2021

It is with sadness that today we learned of the death of our esteemed volunteer Ken Falconer. As many will know, Ken’s health has been a concern for some time and in more recent months has been deteriorating. Sadly he passed away this morning.

Ken’s contribution to the local community through Doncare spans well over 20 years and has included many hours spent working on the Templestowe Op Shop accounts and being a wonderful lead volunteer for several of the Social Support groups. His love of all things financial and his attention to detail were always evident and gave him a lot of enjoyment as well as being a great assistance to Doncare. Of particular note was the care he showed for others, his fellow Templestowe Op Shop Volunteers were very important to him as were all the Op Shop and Doncare finance staff that he had worked alongside and everyone who has been involved in the Social Support Program.

His dedication to the Social Support Program and in particular the clients was exemplary, and over the years he took a leading role with many different groups. Ken took particular pleasure in the monthly Movie Group and enabling clients to enjoy a full day experience of morning tea (while he arranged the movie tickets), enjoying the movie and following it up with lunch during which time Ken would work out what each client needed to pay to cover their outing costs so they only had to handle money at one point.

Saturday Club was another particular favourite with Ken giving volunteering time every Saturday to ensure lonely, isolated seniors were able to meet with friends and enjoy a meal together and break up what could be long days for them. Men’s (later re-named Monday) lunch group was again a shining example of how Ken would organise the outing so clients could just enjoy their outing. Ken was also instrumental in the original set of some of the Social Support Groups and was always willing to do extras – if he could fit it in between his many other volunteering roles I can’t think of any group that Ken hadn’t assisted with at one time or another.

Ken’s contribution to his community through volunteering has been recognised through many awards including a Menzies Award in 2000, “The Manningham MCC Citizen of the Year” in 2005, the inaugural Chairman’s Eastern Health Award for volunteering services to Eastern Health and in 2008 he received a ‘Certificate of Recognition and Appreciation” from the Hon John Brumby MP and the Hon Lisa Neville, MP, on behalf of the Victoria Government to acknowledge his voluntary work within the Victorian community. Ken was awarded an OAM in 2014.

Service with a smile, one of nature’s gentlemen, the epitome of a community minded person. Our thoughts are particularly with Ken’s partner Yvonne and her family at this difficult time.

Helen MacKenzie, Team Leader, Social Support for Seniors.