If you have ever had anything to do with a community organisation in Yass, you would most likely have come across long-time Yass accountant Alfred McCarthy.
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Mr McCarthy, 85, has been recognised today with a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
The citation reads, "For service to the community of Yass," and includes a list of the organisations in which he has been involved (see below).
It's a list that encompasses an enormous array of groups, and multiple decades.
Modestly, he attributes his extensive involvement to having lived a long time in one place.
"The reason that I belonged to so many organisations is because I've had a lot of time to do it!" said Mr McCarthy.
"I'm lucky I'm alive and able to talk to you - I'm grateful for the acknowledgement, but I'm even more grateful for the opportunities I've had."
Looking back, he said he was most proud to have worked with great committees to get important things done.
Alfred William McCarthy was born in Yass in 1935, and only left to study at what was then Canberra University College, from which he earned a Bachelor of Commerce in 1958.
Upon his return to Yass, he joined the Apex Club and the community service ball started rolling from there.
He became the inaugural treasurer of Yass Apex Homes when the first aged care units were built.
"The enthusiasm of the Apex members to build these units for the aged was wonderful - there was nothing like it in Yass," he said.
"I remember when we moved the first six women in and they really had desperate housing needs.
"One was out in the bush, and could only get into town on the school bus. She'd do her shopping and then have to wait all day to get home, and her house was falling down around her ears."
He recalled that Apex was a great organisation back in the 1960s, with a club membership in Yass of over 50.
But he doesn't decry the decline of such groups, recognising that now the government provides services that the community once did.
Following the building of the aged care units, Mr McCarthy thought he'd take a breather, but then a client died and left money for a women's refuge.
He became the founding trustee and secretary of what became the Rae Burgess Centre, now run by Anglicare.
"I still call and down there and say g'day now and then," said Mr McCarthy.
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He admitted he has had a habit of turning up at meetings and walking away with a committee position.
"I went along to an annual P and C meeting and came home the president," he said.
"And my wife is the patron of the Historical Society - she carted me off there once and I came home the treasurer."
Shortly after Mr McCarthy returned to Yass in 1959, he became a partner in what had been his late father's accounting firm, Gregory and McCarthy, where - impressively - he still maintains an office and a few treasured clients.
Alfred and his wife Marion have three children - Geoffrey, a lawyer in Canberra, Frances, a teacher in Perth, and Bruce, who is in marketing at the University of Technology Sydney - and six grandchildren.
Community involvement:
Yass Aged Care Foundation
- Vice-President, current.
- Member, Investment Committee, current.
- Member, since 1991.
Rotary Club of Yass
- President, 1985-1986.
- Member, since 1978.
- Has held a range of Executive roles.
- District Finance Committee and District Treasurer, 2006-2007.
- Involved with the District Youth Exchange and NYSF Committees, for 15 years.
- Established, Education Foundation.
- Paul Harris Fellow.
Yass Meals on Wheels
- Chairman, 1980-2017.
- Treasurer, 1969-1980.
Yass Bicentenary Committee
- Chairman, 1985-1988.
Apex
- District Governor, 1973-1974.
- President, 1967-1968.
- Life Member, since 1975.
- Inaugural Treasurer, Yass Apex Homes.
Other
- Founding Trustee and Secretary, Rae Burgess Centre.
- Former Partner and current consultant, Gregory and McCarthy Chartered Accountants, for over 60 years.
- Admitted to Institute of Chartered Accountants, since 1959.
- Treasurer, Yass Music Club, 2008-2014.
- Member, State Council, Institute of Chartered Accountants.
- Member, Yass Rostrum Club, for over 50 years.
- Treasurer, Yass and District Historical Society, 1982-1986.
- Treasurer, Yass Nursing Home Committee, for 8 years.
- Established Horton House Nursing Home, opened in 1992.