Jack Doyle

In Memoriam Jack Doyle 1932 - 2020 

Jack has died after a short illness following a fall at his daughter’s home in Edinburgh where he had gone to celebrate Christmas. He had achieved the milestone of 50 years in Rotary in 2018, having joined the Rotary Club of Bradford in 1973 by transferring in from the Rotary Club of Harrogate. When he joined. the Rotary Club of Bradford had a very large membership of about a hundred. In the Club Handbook 14 years later, even though in the alphabetical list the initial “D” comes fourth, he was nevertheless 24th name in the book. But already he was on the club Information committee and indeed took it over when PDG Brian Totty left. From that day forward I don’t think that there was any Rotary year in which he was not an officer, a council member, or a chairman of committee; and that pertained up until his death. In the late 1980s when the club still met at the Victoria Hotel, Jack proposed to council creating a role for a Sergeant at Arms who would bring some levity to proceedings by fining people for some actual or contrived misdemeanour. This would raise money for the club’s charity account. Council agreed but said “OK Jack; you do it.” At about the same time Dr Roy Thickett proposed the introduction of a weekly raffle. Nowadays these contributions to our charity fund run to between £2.5K and £3K a year and so that means that Jack was largely responsible for raising over £75K for local charities during the ensuing years. For over 20 years Jack was the only Sergeant at Arms in the club. His canny observation, wit and timing were absolutely brilliant and this could also be seen in his lovely writing style with its little bits of humour and were evident from his business newsletter at Classic Travel and in later years were evident in the club Blog which he produced every two months. He was a ‘wordsmith’ which was evident from his role as Sergeant at Arms and in his writings and he was also the successful ‘manager’ of the club debating team for many years. Every club trip, home and abroad, was booked and organised by Jack and he was a great supporter of all the social events. His beloved wife Marian suffered from serious mobility issues until her death after which Rotary increasingly became important for him and it was very rare for him to miss a meeting. A few years ago he gave up driving and I am sure that he was most grateful to Jane and John Guest who live in the same village and who took him to virtually every meeting and also to social events and conferences. A true Rotarian, Jack indeed put ‘Service above Self’ and was a significant part of the life and dynamic development of the Rotary Club of Bradford, he was also something of an ever present at Rotary meetings and consequently he will be sorely missed. When I was asked to give a last minute eulogy at the first club meeting after Jack’s unexpected death was announced, the only old club handbook I could get hold of at short notice was for the year 1987/88 and the local district motto for that year as decided by the then district governor seems a very apt epitaph to Jack’s Rotary life. “Enter to learn – go forth to serve. He profits most who serves best.” RIP Jack. You will be missed. Geoff Kenure. January 2020