He succumbed to extensive complications caused by a heart attack suffered six weeks prior.
Graeme was born on February 7, 1938, in the Kyabram Bush Nursing Hospital (current site of the Ky Club) to parents Theo and Dorothy Howard.
He had two brothers, Noel (deceased aged nine) and Lloyd (deceased).
Graeme started his education at Haslem Street Primary School and matriculated with honours from Mentone Grammar in Melbourne.
While at Mentone he was awarded colours for cricket (1st XI), football, tennis and led the 1955 Cadets.
Graeme met his wife, Shirley (Sutherland), when they were 11 years old and next-door neighbours in Fischer St, Kyabram.
Graeme and Shirley married on April Fool’s Day in 1961 and were friends and partners for more than 65 years.
They have three children Jeffery, Tracey (Wade) and Tara (Jarrett), as well as nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Graeme was genuinely loved and was proud of his community and contributed enormously to Kyabram to his lifetime.
Graeme played A grade tennis and senior football for Kyabram, he raced go-karts and played competition table tennis and squash.
He was an active member of the A.H. & P. Society (Victorian Agricultural Shows), a St Andrew’s Church Sunday School Superintendent and a Scout and Cub master for many years.
He was awarded a lifetime membership of Jaycees for his charitable contributions through citizenship.
Graeme joined the Kyabram Rotary Club in 1982 and loved being a Rotarian.
For 32 years he recorded a 100 per cent attendance at its weekly meetings.
He was twice president and proud to be honoured with the Paul Harris Fellow Award. This was a tribute to his lifetime of shared values with the Rotary Foundation.
Graeme began his working career as a banker; however, due to the untimely death of his father, Theo, in 1962, Graeme took over the family orcharding business in Howards Ln, Kyabram.
When the fruit industry deteriorated rather rapidly in the late 1960s Graeme then adapted the business to beef farming.
In 1975, Graeme returned to full-time tertiary study at the age of 38 at Bendigo CAE.
He travelled daily for four years and graduated with the first Ceramics Art Degree in Australia.
Graeme then managed the Architectural Ceramic section of Studio Dybka — Sanderson Pottery then later went on to Manage Belltower Pottery, then located in Howards Ln, until he and Shirley started their own business, The Stables, in 1984.
Horse stables (originally owned by Boyd Sutherland) on the corner of Fauna Park Dve and Lake Rd were converted by Graeme and Shirley into a unique bespoke pottery manufacturing and retail outlet.
Graeme was especially proud of this business and their hard work was rewarded in 1986 with an exclusive Victorian Tourism Award.
In 1999 The Stables closed its retail doors and Graeme began a pottery production and wholesale business from a new studio at their residence in Fauna Park Dve.
Graeme officially retired in 2012 and moved from Fauna Park Dve to Oswald St Kyabram.
He and Shirley adopted the term ‘‘Grey Nomads’’ and caravanned extensively around Australia with friends and family.
Graeme was an active resident of Kyabram for 82 years.
He was known collectively throughout this community as a true gentleman with a cheeky sense of humour.
He was generous with his time and enormously proud of his family and the greater Kyabram community.
He will be missed by all.
Graeme’s family wishes to thank everyone for their love and support during the last month and give their sincere thanks to the doctors and staff at St John of God Bendigo and Epworth Eastern Hospitals CCU and ICU departments.
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