Goulburn Valley residents are remembering a community stalwart and tireless volunteer who passed away on Wednesday.
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Allan ‘Yogi’ Beare, a long-term Mooroopna local, dedicated 40 years to the Country Fire Authority and founded the Mooroopna Men’s Shed.
Mr Beare, born in Warragul at the West Gippsland Hospital in 1940, moved to the region with his parents as a teenager.
“I started work in Shepparton as an apprentice baker, lasting three years before the flour drove me out of the business,” Mr Beare recalled in a letter planted in a time capsule at the Mooroopna fire station.
“I then worked in a menswear store opposite the Shepp post office called McLennan and Company — I enjoyed that.”
He went on to enlist with the 8/13 Victorian Mounted Rifles, his military service including duty at Puckapunyal through the late National Service days.
“My Military Service Number was A3/108344, the ‘A’ prefix was unusual and denoted special service personnel... and of course ‘A' is for Allan who was special anyway (dream on),” he wrote.
In 1961, he joined Ardmona Fruit Products as a trainee and was to walk through the doors of that family-owned company with the same fervour for more than four decades.
He received a 40-year service award from the company in 2001, along with a $1300 gold watch — “a lot of money today”.
His passion for community was rivalled only by his unwavering support for Collingwood Football Club.
The halls of his final resting place, Violet Town Nursing Home, are still ringing with his passion for the Pies.
“He used to walk around the home with his walking stick, stop walking and randomly use it as a guitar and start singing ‘good old Collingwood foreverrrrr’,” his granddaughter Maddy Christie remembers.
Mr Beare’s funeral is at Merritt Funeral Services in Mooroopna on Thursday, July 18 at 1pm.
Allan 'Yogi' Beare and Neale Daniher. Photo: Supplied.
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