Neil Werner was a motivated man, trying his hand at many a hobby in his 93 years, but gardening, photography and music were his great loves.
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Born in Yallourn, Victoria, on May 30, 1932, to Francis and Edith Werner, Neil was the eldest of two boys, with his younger brother, Alan, arriving five years later.
In 1937, the family moved to Melbourne suburb Ivanhoe, where Neil attended Ivanhoe State School before completing his secondary education at Ivanhoe Grammar.
Hinting at a promising future career in the field, Neil got a mark of 100 per cent in science in Form 2.
Before that, during the 1930s, polio had parents terrified for their children, and Neil was quarantined from his friends, with only his baby brother for company.
He would climb the fence in the backyard and longingly watch the large family of kids next door play together.
In May, 1942, Neil became the ‘man’ of the house at 10 years old, when his 44-year-old father, Frank, enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force and was absent for three years.
After being gifted a chemistry set, Neil’s interest in science grew.
Experimenting saw him blow a hole in the family’s kitchen table, but as Robert F. Kennedy said, only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly, and that Neil did.
Science was just one of his many interests, and although he was encouraged to row for his school, it was music that most appealed.
At 12, he achieved Grade VI pianoforte and later played the chapel pipe organ, before being appointed Corrigan House music captain in his later years of secondary school, 1949 and 1950.
In December, 1951, Neil started working as an apprentice to a North Balwyn chemist and chiropodist before his studies at Parkville’s Pharmacy College, from which he graduated in 1956.
During this period, he performed pipe organ recitals at Wesley College, where he met Erna Jacqueline Elaine Winston Clifton, from Brunswick West.
The pair were married on the first day of spring in 1956 at the Wesley College Chapel in Prahran, before a reception at the Chevron Hotel’s Wedgwood Room and a honeymoon at South Cronulla, staying at Hotel Cecil.
Yearning to work for himself, Neil and Erna purchased a small pharmacy in the Mallee town of Boort.
There, Neil was elected to the board of the Bush Nursing Hospital where the couple welcomed their first child, Kirsten, in 1958.
Four years later, they welcomed a second child, Guy, at a new hospital in the town.
Neil and Erna, along with other townsfolk, raised funds to build the pre-school that still exists there today, with Neil taking on the secretarial role of the committee.
Before their own children had reached kindergarten age, the family relocated to a home in Regent St, Shepparton, in their green Valiant station wagon.
Later, they built an architecturally designed home on what were then the outskirts of town, in Blamey St, nicknamed ‘the barn’ by local kids for its unpainted cedar weatherboards.
It was there that Neil developed a passion for plants and garden design, perhaps influenced by his younger horticulturalist brother, Alan.
“His was probably the first bush front garden in Shepparton, comprised exclusively of natives,” Neil’s son, Guy Werner, said.
“Saturday afternoons often involved a visit to the local plant nursery, returning home with one of just about everything. He was a bit of a collector.”
He worked long hours in the early years of running his Wyndham St pharmacy, Neil Werner Pharmacy, but Guy remembers Friday nights being reserved as fish and chip night.
With the family holidaying at the beach and swimming in the Goulburn River often, swim lessons for the kids were a must.
Guy said his dad would drive him and Kirsten to training and carnivals, and took on timekeeping duties for their teams.
Neil took his kids fishing for the first time in Merimbula, where he also woke a young Guy to experience his first sunrise over the ocean.
Then, at Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges, they climbed Mt John together.
Neil and Erna were socialites, enjoying many barbecues, dinner parties and trips together with friends they made in the Goulburn Valley.
In 1977, Neil was elected to the Goulburn Valley Base Hospital board, of which he went on to become president.
He was a director for more than 20 years.
At the same time, business was going well and the pharmacy relocated two doors down on Wyndham St.
Recognising a growing drug problem in the community, Neil’s pharmacy was the first in town to adopt a methadone program.
He and Erna helped set up VADCARE, a drug and alcohol addict support program, and Lifeline, a telephone counselling service for the region.
Guy said his father moved with the times, keeping on top of new technology and trends.
“He swapped mechanical cash registers for electronic and embraced the computerised pharmacy in 1980,” he said.
“He also readily adopted new business trends, such as Friday night shopping and extended Saturday hours.
“Mum and Dad greatly valued their staff and staff training, running courses in sales technique, etcetera, for them.”
His pharmacy sold more than medications, with mobility aids, home brew kits, French perfumes and cosmetics, a mini photo lab and wigs on offer at various stages.
When Coles opened a south Shepparton store, Neil and Erna opened a second pharmacy, which also sold orthopaedic sandals, nearby.
After that, in the 1990s, they opened a mobility scooter store, managed by their daughter-in-law, Guy’s wife, Trish.
After the Gulf War, Neil and Erna helped teach the Goulburn Valley’s Iraqi refugees English.
Willingly extending himself further, Neil held several other roles on boards and committees locally, including Shepparton Retirement Villages president and director, Shepparton Arts Council president, Pharmacy Guild delegate, Regional Arts Victoria director, and Victorian Arts Council board member.
In the early ’90s, Neil and Erna helped set up the Australian National Piano Award, a biennial competition for young Australian pianists, of which Neil was president.
After selling the pharmacy in 1999, Neil, a pharmacist and health board member who’d devoted his career and voluntary work to helping improve the health of others, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
In 2005, he was awarded an Order of Australia medal for his services to the Community Hospital, Lifeline and the Australian National Piano Award.
As busy as Neil kept his schedule, Guy remembers his dad still always made time for hobbies.
“He was a bit of a tinkerer,” he said.
“He tried his hand at flying, cycling, drawing, painting, sculpture and pottery, but photography was a lasting hobby.
“Fine wine was also an enduring love that Dad had.”
Guy’s favourite memories with his father, however, were fly-fishing trips to Khancoban, the King River and New Zealand.
Neil and Erna sold their Shepparton home and moved to Point Lonsdale just before Christmas in 2012, where they continued contributing to their new community.
Neil gave his time nurturing seedlings at the local indigenous plant nursery, and lit the iconic Point Lonsdale Christmas tree on behalf of nursery volunteers.
He was a regular at the Queenscliff Men’s Shed, where Guy said he “was less productive, but drank many cups of tea and consumed the odd snag”.
After his driver’s licence was revoked, Neil and Erna bought identical scooters.
Sadly, Erna passed away eight years ago.
Seven months later, Neil moved into Bellarine Arcare nursing home.
Guy said despite the Alzheimer’s, Neil retained a pretty good sense of geography, a subject he’d also nearly scored top marks for — 95 per cent — in Form 2.
After Neil “escaped” the nursing home a few years ago, Guy said he turned up at his place “absolutely knackered” after giving them all a fright when his GPS tracker had placed him inaccurately out in Port Phillip Bay.
Neil took every opportunity to learn, explore and help others.
As Guy echoed his mum’s words about his dad, her husband, “He’d buy a ticket to a dog fight if he could,” one thing is for sure: Neil lived his life to the fullest.
Neil passed away at the nursing home where he lived on August 19, 2025.
His funeral was held at William Sheahan Funerals in Drysdale on August 29.
A quote he spruiked, but also lived by, sums up the man Neil was: “A society is only changed for the better through the grassroots beliefs and efforts of its citizens.”