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Last week, I had a chat with Les Young.
Now, I have known of Les since I was a youngster; I had heard of ‘Salty’ many times.
And our paths crossed occasionally when I was working at The News.
However, not counting a couple of phone calls, we had never really talked.
My immediate interest was the nickname.
How had Salty came about?
When the Young brothers attended the Ardmona School, Neil (the older brother) was said to be ‘into everything’ and was called Pepper.
When Les came along, he was called Salt — and I suspect he might have been into a few things too.
As we worked our way through his life, it emerged that he has been working in real estate for more than 70 years, which is really quite remarkable.
For more than 50 of those years, in his own business.
This wasn’t an efficient discussion, we kept getting off track.
There were many people we both knew, largely because of my early connections with Mooroopna — and, back in the day, there was a young girl he liked a lot, who happened to be my cousin.
Les began his working life, when he was 15 years old, at the State Bank. However, writing numbers in columns didn’t interest him particularly.
Then one day, he was looking at photos in the window of a real estate agent.
Earnest Norton asked him why — and Les replied that he wanted to work in real estate.
And that was the beginning of a long and successful career.
Sometime in the 1980s, he expressed interest in helping our hospice get up and running — and he’s been on the board of management ever since.
I told him that I consider Hospice to be one of Shepp’s great success stories.
I called Wendy Ross, at Hospice, and she told me that our community hospice is the only one, nationwide, to have achieved a perfect score.
Then in 2013, he stood looking at the Mooroopna War Memorial, frustrated by the fact that the memorial covered those lost in the Boer War and World War I, but no mention of more recent wars.
As he was also Rotary member, he had a starting place, and with the help of several Rotarians, negotiations began.
All levels of government were involved and, of course, the RSL.
Today, the Mooroopna War Memorial is very different — well designed and including the contributions made by the local Indigenous people.
It is beautiful, and if you haven’t stopped to have a look, please do.
It is designed to be lit at night but, unfortunately, the lights are not working correctly, which is one of the things the council has had to put on its wish list.
It was completed in 2021 and the final cost was $350,000.
Les has been a Rotarian for 40 years.
He has been recognised as a Paul Harris Fellow and double Sapphire and a past-president.
He loved flying — he was a part-owner of a Cessna 177 — and loves the outback.
With his wife of 65 years, Irene, their favourite activity was fishing for barramundi at a place called King Ash Bay in the Northern Territory.
His deepest regret was the loss of his beautiful, dearly loved daughter Suzie, who passed away in 2011. He misses her every day.
His son Glenn manages the Shepparton business of Young & Co and Glenn’s wife, Connie, takes care of the Mooroopna branch.
Les, according to the website, is a consultant. He was ready to step aside.
There is no doubt that his is a successful life, well lived and enjoyed; Les is a long way from losing his sense of humour.
Spring is here. May it be easy, my friends.
Marnie
Email: towntalk@sheppnews.com.au
Phone: Text or call 0409 317 187