Vale Laurie Palmer

Laurie Palmer was a former President, Treasurer, Life Member and long-term supporter of Concord Junior Soccer Club, a club he joined in the 1960’s introducing his sons Gregory, Bradley and Stuart to the great game of football and invoking in each a life long passion for the sport.

Laurie would often recall his wife, June along with other mothers with sons playing in the Club, cutting and sewing new team jerseys in their garage at their Dorking Road home in a bid to keep club expenses to a minimum. As well, he would remind all listening that the job of the Club Treasurer through the 1960’s and early 70’s was collecting, collating and counting the 20-cent match fee paid by each player per week. The 1960’s were times in which the average family could not afford a substantial lump sum payment at the beginning of the season and so the initial registration fees were kept at a minimum and supplemented with weekly payments. Laurie was very pleased that those days had long passed and that families were generally more affluent in recent decades.

Laurie took on the role of Club President in 1970, serving alongside Barry Wood and George Russell in their roles as Secretary and Treasurer respectively. From 1975 through to 1979 Laurie served as Treasurer along with his good friends Ron Tonkin (President) and George Grierson (Secretary). Laurie was awarded Life Membership of Concord JSC in 1979 and, along with June and Paula and George Grierson, was among the inaugural recipients of the Club Person of the Year Award in 1981.  He was very proud of his involvement during the “early days” of Concord JSC and prouder still of the progress that the Club had made in later years.

Throughout the 1990’s and beyond, when his involvement in the Club was quite minimal, Laurie would still attend the Annual General Meeting and would regularly be invited to lead the meeting during the election of Club Officials for the forthcoming season. As a natural raconteur Laurie was always comfortable accepting this invitation and never failed to have those around him share in his good-humoured observations of the Club’s successes and its continued constructive development.

Earlier this month Laurie passed away after a short illness just six weeks short of his 96th birthday.   

John Tonkin

June 2025