General News
17 April, 2023
Probus life membership for Earl
The highlight of the Maryborough Probus meeting in April was the conferring of life membership to valued member Earl Ellis. At 92, Mr Ellis has been an active member of Probus since joining the club in 2000, including holding the office of president...
The highlight of the Maryborough Probus meeting in April was the conferring of life membership to valued member Earl Ellis.
At 92, Mr Ellis has been an active member of Probus since joining the club in 2000, including holding the office of president twice, serving for some years as newsletter editor and many years as a state delegate.
Mr Ellis said he joined Probus in 2000 following the death of his wife, Dorothy.
“I had been retired for a while and Dorothy and I had a good life travelling, but then she got breast cancer and from there on it was downhill,” he said.
“Dorothy passed away in 1999. I was cleaning up the house and preparing it for resale when my friend Bob Osborne popped around and asked how I was doing. I told him I was just filling in time, so he said ‘well have you heard of Probus?’ and invited me to come along to a meeting to see what I thought.”
Probus was formed in England in 1965 by a group of business men who commuted by train to their workplaces in London. The men realised that, upon their impending retirement, they would still have the need for fellowship, so organised a monthly luncheon. They advertised a meeting for retired professionals and businessmen.
From that first meeting of 40 men in the 1960, Probus now has more than 4000 clubs and 400,000 members (both men and women) worldwide. The motto of the non-political, secular group is ‘fun, friendship and fellowship’.
Maryborough Probus has been active since 1984. They have a guest speaker at each monthly meeting, monthly dine out, coffee-and-chat afternoons, walking groups, weekly card afternoons and bus trips and tours.
Speaking with Mr Ellis, it is clear his Probus membership has kept him happily busy for more than 20 years.
“Probus offers camaraderie with other members, we all get along quite well We all seem to be in the same boat and will look out for one another,” he said.
“We also have a lawn bowls club so we play Probus bowls all around Victoria and thoroughly enjoy ourselves.”