Kevin Bourke was never one to let life pass him by.
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A leading figure of the Cobram community, Kevin was a family man, a born storyteller and a pillar of civic spirit.
Kevin Vincent Bourke passed away surrounded by family on Wednesday, April 23 at Orchard House in Cobram Regional Care.
He was born in Deniliquin to Emily May and Bob Bourke on September 17, 1939, the youngest of four siblings behind Patrick, Sheila and Barry.
Bob was a railway station master, and his work took the family across the region. For much of Kevin’s youth, the family lived in railway houses from Mathoura to Chiltern before settling in Cobram.
While living in railway houses across the district, Kevin encountered people from all different walks of life. Perhaps it was no surprise that he developed a compassion for people and an awareness for the ephemeral nature of life; a sensitivity that he was here for only a brief time and therefore must seize each day for every drop of possibility it held.
Kevin went to school in Cobram and Numurkah, after which he worked in the State Savings Bank at the corner of Cobram’s Station and Main Sts. Before long, he was transferred to Melbourne.
After four years of city life, Kevin decided to follow the call of home and moved back to Cobram.
It was in his childhood that Kevin met the woman who would become his life-long love in Leonie Marxsen.
Kevin and Leonie married at St Joseph’s Church in Cobram in 1964.
From an early age, Kevin showed a precocious talent for golf, a sport he pursued with passion, winning numerous tournaments and championships over his lifetime.
“Golf was his absolute passion. He did a huge amount for the community, but golf was always number one in his earlier years,” Leonie said.
Kevin was a life member of the Cobram-Barooga Golf Club and the Goulburn Valley District Golf Association. To this day, he holds the record at the CBGC for winning 21 club championships.
Storytelling and a love for music and poetry came as naturally to Kevin as sunshine on a summer’s day.
“He loved classical music. He listened to Classic FM all day long,” Leonie said.
With a knack for rhyme and public speaking, there was hardly an event when Kevin didn’t enthral his audience with an anecdote.
“If Kevin and I were at any event, and he thought a speech should be made, and no-one made one, he would stand up and make a speech,” Leonie said.
“And it was usually fantastic.”
Soon to be highly regarded across Victoria and NSW for his pioneering hire supply business, Kevin bought his first marquee from a circus while working with his brother, Barry, selling farm equipment.
Thus did Kevin employ his vision and social intelligence to soon develop his own business, Bourke Hire.
With his close friend Andy Wallace, Kevin designed a form of tiered seating for which Bourke Hire became renowned. The seating would soon feature in events such as the Australian Open tennis tournament, the Victorian Golf Championships and the Logie Awards.
He served for 10 years on the executive committee of the Victorian Hire Association, for which he also established a branch for the state’s north-east.
Under Kevin’s leadership, Bourke Hire also became a key supplier to agricultural field days across Victoria and southern NSW.
The successful business continues today in the safe hands of Kevin’s daughter Fiona and son-in-law Chris King.
Kevin’s keen civic spirit saw him play a pivotal role in demonstrating the need for a new bridge connecting Cobram and Barooga.
So much was the community impressed by his advocacy that Kevin was elected a Moira Shire councillor, serving as mayor for a year.
“He loved it, except for the technology,” Fiona said.
His community spirit found further outlets through his work with the Cobram Rotary Club.
Notably, when the 10-year drought set in, leaving families across the region in a plight, Kevin co-ordinated care and relief between the nine Rotary clubs of Booroondara and four clubs across Moira Shire.
In 1987, Kevin was awarded the Paul Harris Fellow award, the highest honour bestowed upon a Rotarian.
Fellow long-standing Rotarian Neil Kerr remembered Kevin as a great organiser and self-starter.
“It doesn’t matter where you needed him. He was always the first person to put his hand up,” Neil said.
“His community service was excellent. He wanted to help others, especially around the town and all the organisations that he got involved in, and pushing the word of Rotary as well as obtaining all the benefits that he could for the community at large.”
The sentiment was echoed by Cobram Rotary president James Cornish.
“For 55 years, he was a good Rotarian, a good person,” James said.
“He was full of ideas and a total Rotarian who got involved in everything to do with Rotary.”
As Kevin’s favourite famous golfer Ben Hogan advised, he made sure to stop and smell the roses on the fairway of life.
But according to his daughter Andrea, Kevin wouldn’t just smell them.
“He would sing them a song, make up a rhyme or a speech about them, join a committee to help preserve them for the community and take some home to share with his wife and family,” she said.
“We are honoured and truly blessed to have this special man in our lives.”
He was the beloved father and father-in-law of Fiona and Chris (King), Chris and Nichola, and Andrea and Jem.
Kevin left behind a legacy as a grandfather and great-grandfather of Harry and Alexandra, Edward, Alexander, Hugo, Ruby and James, Finn, Lucy, Eva, Imogen, Frederick, Juniper and Leo.
“People thought he was generous, friendly, happy,” Fiona said.
“He would always compliment people. He would always find something to compliment them personally.”
Because that’s who Kevin was: a vessel of light and love, of community spirit and open-heartedness, who, even as his responsibilities grew more numerous, made sure to watch his grandsons play their football games.
Vale Kevin Bourke.
Cadet journalist