WORLAND, Gordon (1897-1984)
President 1946-1957. Life Member 1968
OBITUARY - Mr. J . S. G. Worland - The death occurred on 23rd September of one of the Society's most prominent and active members in its earlier years, Mr. J.S.G. Worland, at the age of 87, after a long illness. Joseph Stephen Gordon Worland (always known as Gordon) was born and educated at Warrnambool, Victoria. On leaving school he became a pupil-teacher in the Victorian Education Department, which he left to enlist in the A.I.F. for service in the First World War.
After the War, he qualified as a surveyor, and came to Illawarra as a member of the team which carried out the survey work for the famous one-inch military maps. Subsequently he specialised in mine surveying, and at the time of his retirement was Chief Mine Surveyor of Huntley Colliery.
Gordon Worland was a foundation Councillor of this Society, and at the 1946 Annual General Meeting was elected Honorary Research Secretary. On the presidency becoming vacant in March that year, he was elected, and filled both offices for the remainder of the year. He held the presidency continuously until February 1957 - a record term- and was Senior Vice President in 1958 and 1959.
During this long period, he may be said, so far as Wollongong people and organisations were concerned, to have personified the Society and the history of the district. Whenever any question of local history arose, it was to him that the enquirer naturally turned and on most public occasions he was the Society's representative. As well as addressing the Society many times, he was in great demand as a guest speaker for other organisations, both during his term of office and afterwards, until precluded by advancing years and ill-health.
In these and other ways he contributed much to the development and maintenance in Illawarra of interest in local history and played a major part in the Society's affairs during its formative period. In recognition of his services to the Society he was in 1968 elected to Honorary Life Membership.
Gordon was prominent in many other public bodies and community organisations, among which may mentioned particularly the R.S.L., in which he was Secretary of the Corrimal Sub-Branch, the V.D.C., in which he held the rank of Captain during the Second World War, The Surf Lifesaving Movement, The Illawarra Society for Crippled Children, and Rotary. His term of office as President of the Wollongong Rotary Club coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of Rotary, which clubs were urged to mark by some project which would be a "commemoration for all time". Wollongong Rotary's project was the development of the Mount Keira Summit Reserve, which included construction of lookouts and the provision of a road to the summit. His part in this would alone entitle him to the lasting gratitude of Wollongong and its people.
He was, in short, an outstanding example of public spirit and good citizenship, to whom this Society and the community owe a great debt, and whose good nature, kindness of heart, and geniality won him innumerable friends. To Mrs. Worland and to his relatives the Society extends its sincere sympathy.
Bettina McDermott
Illawarra Historical Society Bulletin 1 November, 1984