Colin’s eulogy read by Terry Priestley on behalf of the family.

Colin was born on the 11th October 1940 in Drummoyne, Sydney, and was the eldest son of James Ferguson and Nancy May Glasson and brother to Ross.

The family moved to Warren and Wilcannia when Colin was a young child when his father, a teacher, transferred to those schools.

As you can imagine, Wilcannia was the wild west in 1942, especially for a young family transferred from Sydney.

In 1945 the family moved to Burradoo, Bowral when his father took up the job of Principal at Anglewood Special School for truants, run by the then Dept of Child Welfare.

Colin went to Bowral Primary and High Schools.  

He was very involved in sport, representing his schools and districts in running, cross country, swimming, hockey and soccer.

Whenever we kids used to whinge about going to school he would say – well I used to ride 9 miles to school through the snow with no shoes so they didn’t get wet.

Being an economics teacher dad didn’t mind a bit of GST on a story.

In 1956 he carried the Olympic Torch through Bowral on its journey to Melbourne, being the youngest person to carry the torch at only 16 years of age.

Torch bearers had to qualify to run with the torch in those days and to do so had to run a mile in under six minutes.

The torch weighed a kilo, without magnesium fuel, which made it hot and sparks flew back onto the runners in the wind.

All torch bearers were given a replica Olympic Bronze Medal which he highly treasured.

In the same year Colin was part of the Olympic swimming training squad and was the pacer for Murray Rose in training, who went on to win three gold medals at the Melbourne Olympics.

He left school in 1958 and after various jobs (including working in Uncle Art Glasson's foundry in Arncliffe) and one year full-time study at Sydney Uni, he attended Sydney Teacher's College in 1963 to gain a Teaching Diploma.  

He taught at Kogarah High School in 1964-65, including economics to a future Australian treasurer John Hewson.

He was a centre forward in first grade hockey in Sydney for a number of years, and once told Andrew that he had only two or three fingers that weren’t broken by fullbacks.

Dad then applied for a transfer to Dubbo High School so he could continue with his Degree externally through Armidale Uni.  

During his time at Dubbo High he coached the senior girl's hockey team and took the Western Area Girl's Hockey team to win three successive State Titles.

Col’s little corgi Taffy was a favourite with the hockey girls and she became the team’s good luck mascot. He was extremely proud of the group to have achieved so highly.

Dad met Mum through Uncle Trev and Aunty Isabel in 1963 on a ski trip to Perisher.

They travelled together in the back of Uncle Trev’s car and with Uncle Trev’s rally like driving, couldn’t help but get to know each other.

They were married in May 1966. Dad and Mum started with very little and for the first 12 months lived upstairs from a butcher shop in North Dubbo.

They did however have a VW, and travelled the dirt roads of the west following Uncle’s Don and Dave and the mighty Eugowra All Blacks, always with Taffy the corgi in the middle of the back seat.

In summer they travelled to Wyangala and Burrendong to go water skiing with the Glasson’s as Art, George and Ray brought the boat west or to Wisemans Ferry, where the Glasson’s had the first boat shed there.

Dad was proud of the photo in the Wisemans Ferry pub of the Glasson’s forming a pyramid behind one of the boats.

It wasn’t all fun and games - once on a beach landing Dad found a willow tree and was laid up in hospital, bruised from navel to big toe.

After six yrs in Dubbo they moved to Finley, near the Victorian border, for a promotion, where Andrew was born in 1973.

They moved back to Dubbo in 1975-76, where Sally was born, for Colin to run the Orana Education Centre which was a resource centre for teachers in the Orana Region.  

During 1976 he spent a lot of time travelling with a caravan full of teacher resources as far west as Weilmoringle and Wilcannia.

A move to Ulladulla High School from 1977-1983 - where they built a lovely house overlooking Mollymook Beach - saw both Colin and Barb heavily involved in the Mollymook Surf Club, their names are still on the honour roll today.  

Colin was Secretary of the Club and one of the instigators and President of the Nippers.

He was also Carnival Organiser for the State Titles in Feb 1983 which involved about 3,000 competitors competing over three days.

It was the first time the Mollymook club had been given the honour.

It was a huge responsibility but he was pleased with the success of it and how the number of competitors rivalled the Commonwealth Games held in Brisbane the year prior.

The event was a huge success and carnival referee John Dewey was quoted as saying, “This year the (NSW) Championships were held in perhaps the best venue available ever for a championship. Congratulations to Mollymook … for conducting a first-class championship.”

After his mother passed away in 1982 Colin wanted to resign from teaching and take up farming.  

It's in the Glasson blood.

The family moved to Forbes buying a 105 acre irrigation farm on the Lachlan River just east of Forbes.

They grew lucerne for hay and after a few years of running crossbred ewes and lambs ventured into a White Suffolk sheep stud breeding rams for sale.  

Dad was extremely proud of the rams he bred, but was way too modest to take them anywhere beyond the Eugowra or Forbes show, believing that what they produced showed how good they were, not ribbons.

They also started a chaff mill supplying regular customers as far away as Taree, Richmond and south of Sydney.

During the time on the farm he joined the Masonic Lodge in Eugowra and using his education background, became very involved in the education of Masons.  

He travelled to Lodges from Lithgow to Condobolin and Jerilderie to Cobar giving talks and educational training to Masons.

He developed training packages, upset the odd senior Mason, but was always educating.

After retiring to Dubbo, and having more time, he became a member of the Education Committee on the Board of Management of Grand Lodge in Sydney and wrote the Mentor Scheme for use in NSW for all new Masons.

Colin was the only country member of this committee and was fiercely proud of this.

He received a promotion from Grand Lodge for his services to Masonry.

In 1996 Colin had quadruple heart by-pass surgery and never fully recovered his strength, so in 2000 they sold the farm (much to Colin's disappointment) and retired to Dubbo.

Sadly, in 2016 he was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia and his health slowly declined.

It always amazed his family how Colin could show moments of brilliance and hold lengthy discussions about times long ago and then ask what day is it?

In April of this year a tough decision was made for Colin to move into R.F.B.I. Masonic Village in Dubbo as a permanent resident.

Barb and the kids were pleased with the Village and knew Colin was in good hands and well cared for. He was proud to be still amongst the Masons.

Sadly Colin passed away in the early hours of Sunday 18th November as the sun rose. He will be remembered as a wise and gentle man who loved to learn and teach, and will be dearly missed.