THE contribution that the late Roger Walton made to his adopted homeplace in Ballydehob was acknowledged in a great many tributes.
At different times of his life, Roger was a hairdresser and a painter, and he worked at the oil terminals on Whiddy Island for a number of years. He even opened a garden centre.
If there is one area of his life that inspired the most, it would have been his involvement in the Ballydehob Gymnastics Club.
Roger, along with his wife Gay, was ‘ahead of his time in founding the very successful Ballydehob Gymnastics Club in the Hall,’ said a spokesperson for the Ballydehob Community Hall Committee. It was noted that he was a huge supporter of the hall in many different ways including supplying bulbs and flowers from his garden centre to enhance its surroundings.
The gymnastics club was a brilliant outlet and opportunity for the children of the Ballydehob area, and beyond, for many years.
In fact, many of the condolences mentioned the gymnastic club, and their exhilarating trips abroad, as testament to the positive impact he made on people’s lives.
Roger met Gay, who was training as a nurse in Oxford, in 1964. They married in Baltimore in 1968, having bought a derelict railway cottage in Ballydehob the year before.
Roger re-roofed the cottage, put in new windows and doors and did all of the electrics before they moved in on St Patrick’s Day 1969.
‘He was the most wonderful neighbour anyone could have,’ said his friend Kitty Kingston. ‘He could do anything. He could fix anything. He could make anything.
‘I could write a book on him,’ said Kitty, whose comments typified the high esteem in which Roger was held.
Roger died, aged 84, on Wednesday July 24th after a short illness.
The thanksgiving service for his life, held in St Matthias Church on Sunday was an outpouring of community spirit and affection for Roger and his surviving family, wife Gay, son Simon and daughter Janette, as well as his extended family. Family and friends attended his cremation on Monday.
Local Cllr Caroline Cronin (FG) described her former gymnastic coach as ‘a fantastic community man.’
‘I have fabulous memories of my time at the gym in the Ballydehob Community Hall with Roger and Gay. He was always funny – really a fantastic personality. He will be sorely missed by the community.’
‘For all of his involvement in the community, he was a very private person but whatever he did he did to perfection,’ his wife Gay told The Southern Star.
Meanwhile, Simon said of his dad, ‘He was able to do everything himself, and what he couldn’t do, he learned from a book. Nothing was beyond him.’
Janette, who was the apple of her father’s eye, said, ‘He was the apple of mine.’
