Barry Keys recognised for 60 years of service to Rotary

The Rotary Club of Narrabri has recognised Barry Keys for 60 years of service with the organisation.

Barry was joined by family, friends and Rotarians when he received a special recognition award at last week’s club dinner meeting.

Many in Narrabri and surrounding districts would be familiar with Barry, but if you are not, here is the brief on Barry Keys.

In the community, Barry has always been known as a good, honest businessman in the plumbing profession, putting through many apprentices over the years.

He long held a reputation as a great provider of plumbing services in Narrabri. It isn’t dramatic to say half of the plumbers in Narrabri were trained under Barry’s mentoring.

Barry and his wife, Marie, have six children. Two daughters and four sons. Marie was a trained nurse and worked for many years in the Narrabri Hospital.

During his years of service to Rotary and the Narrabri community, Barry was involved and often the first to volunteer his time or lend equipment for Rotary projects.

He was always active behind the scenes with Rotary service and youth exchanges.

Barry continues to be an active and great Rotarian today, a valuable asset to the Narrabri community.

The Courier sat down with wife Marie and daughter Therese, both speaking for Barry, who was not available, on his incredible achievement.

“He’s very humble about it. He doesn’t feel he’s done a lot, but he really has. He actually rang me this morning and asked me to downplay everything,” Marie said.

“He’s definitely feeling overwhelmed, and modest about this recognition. Always very modest and always feels like he can do more.

“He thinks he hasn’t quite done enough, but he’s actually done a lot more than he’ll admit.”

Marie shared that it was a neighbour’s warm welcome that started Barry off at the club.

“A neighbour of ours, Vic Miller, who owned the bakery in town at the time, invited him to join the Rotary,” Marie said.

“When Barry first joined Rotary, it was a very formal local club. Everyone had to attend the meeting and if they missed three weeks of meetings without a very good excuse, that was the end of their membership.

“They always wore a shirt and tie, and each member who joined had to be a leader or president of something or have their own business.

“When he first joined, I was told that there were two occasions that you never missed. One was the changeover dinner, and the other the Christmas party.

“For the changeover dinner, and for the district governor’s visit, it was all very formal. Men wore dinner suits and women wore evening dress. It was quite good, really. It’s so different now.”

As previously mentioned, Barry was involved with youth exchanges during his years with the Rotary.

“We’ve had three exchange students. They lived with us for three months. Two were from South Africa, and one was from Mexico,” Marie said.

“And we also got to know another South African boy very well, Neil. He was living with Pat and Vic Miller, but I think he had an eye for our babysitter; he spent a lot of time over here.

“So, we got to know Neil very well. And, in fact, I’m still in touch with Neil, and with Tracey.

“He really enjoyed having Tracey. She was South African, and she was older than our eldest child and we had six younger than her, so it was a full house.”

As well as this special recognition award, Barry has had his fair share of awards presented by Rotary.

“Barry was very humbled to receive the Paul Harris Fellowship award and a few years ago, received the Dark Horse award, neither of which he felt he deserved,” Marie mentioned.

“He has always been very community-minded. Rotary serves the community. And that’s probably been Barry’s way of serving the community.

“He was born here, and his father was born here. The family used to own the flour mill, which used to have our name on it.”

Barry has shown Narrabri the balance of owning your own business while allocating time in giving back to the community.

“So, Dad with Rotary, he managed to do all that in between running a business up to 10 or 12. He really took up all of us and provided for his family, which is amazing,” Therese said.

“I was home a few years ago and it was when they were doing some big road works down near the primary school.

“They asked volunteers to walk the kindergarten kids, and so Dad went and was going down there every morning holding the hands of these kids, helping them across the road.

“I think Dad was made just to serve the community. And to keep doing the good work that he’s done over the 60 years plus that he’s been with us.”

One of Barry’s many long-term friends in Rotary, Len Hall, was among the speakers at last week’s presentation.

“Over the years he has always made himself available to work whenever and wherever he could, and always attend meetings on a Thursday night,” Len said.

“Running the business, where he quite often worked until 12 midnight preparing for the following day, he couldn’t always donate the time he would have liked to Rotary, but he has always enjoyed the friendship and fellowship that Rotary has brought.”

Like all partners and spouses of Rotarians, Len said Marie has always enjoyed having her freedom on Thursday nights.

Len praised Barry’s dedication to business.

“There were up to 14 plus casuals on the staff at times. There would have been 20 people offered apprenticeships, many of whom have gone on to start their own business in Narrabri and further afield,” he said.

“Barry Keys Plumbing serviced clients across the region, as far as Caroona, Boggabilla, Walgett, Dubbo, Moree, Gunnedah.

“Barry Keys was the only local firm to work on The Crossing Theatre plumbing, and the Australia Telescope, a very big project in early days.

“Barry made time for recreation in a busy work life and was a keen golfer, a Rotarian, and tennis player.

“But work had been his life, six and a half days a week. Sometimes seven days a week. After Peter Brown retired, there were very few in town doing plumbing work, so Barry became very well-known and was always busy.”