AN extraordinary contributor to the Barnawartha football club and stalwart of the Indigo Valley is being remembered as a "fantastic bloke" and top role model.
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Doug Welladsen died on Tuesday last week at the age of 92 after having palliative care at Wodonga hospital.
The widower played for Barnawartha with distinction before being president for more than 20 years, was a CFA member for six decades and had a fine reputation for his shearing work which he was still doing in his 70s.
Football club president Chris Peirce first met Mr Welladsen in 1975 and described his service to the Tigers as huge on and off the field.
"There was a couple of very lean years and he and a few others saved the club a couple of times," Mr Peirce said.
"They would go out hay carting to make money."
Mr Peirce added Mr Welladsen "had no children and those at the footy club were his kids".
Trevor Jones, who was on the club committee with Mr Welladsen, said: "His contribution in time and service and hours was just extraordinary plus undisclosed personal donations.
"I wouldn't know anybody that is not better off for meeting him."
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Neighbour Bill Dickson said Mr Welladsen sheared and fenced for his family.
"He was a fantastic bloke and a tireless worker," Mr Dickson said.
"We're losing all the good old guys of the valley and he was one of those."
Mr Welladsen was born in January 1929, the youngest of five brothers.
He worked on his father's farm before having his own property.
Mr Welladsen met his wife Shirley while they were growing up on nearby properties and they married at Barnawartha in the 1960s.
His fire brigade service saw him tackle an inferno that decimated Barnawartha in 1952 and resulted in the death of a firefighter in his team.
Mr Welladsen's football exploits included playing in Barnawartha's 1956 flag and winning the club best and fairest at least eight times.
"A good mark and excellent kick, he lets neither the occasion nor the weather put him off," Chiltern's Federal Standard newspaper wrote of him in 1950.
Mr Welladsen and Shirley were made life members of the club and he had the same honour from Barnawartha's golf club.
Mrs Welladsen died in 2007 with Mr Welladsen describing himself as her "ever loving husband" in a Border Mail death notice.
A funeral date is yet to be determined for Mr Welladsen who is survived by four nieces and a nephew.
Black armbands will be worn when Barnawartha plays its next match.
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