Dandenong’s Bruce Patchell can now add the Medal of the Order of Australia to his long list of credentials, thanks to his By Shaun Inguanzo
BRUCE Patchell is open-minded to change – perhaps because he has seen Dandenong transformed from small town into booming city.
The 86-year-old is this week celebrating the announcement that he will receive the Medal of the Order of Australia after more than 50 years of tireless commitment to the Dandenong community.
Mr Patchell, born in Tatura in Victoria’s north in 1920, can spin a few fine yarns to anybody.
He served in World War II with the army, spending a painful four years away from wife Christina (Chris) while witnessing the futility of death on both sides.
After returning to Dandenong in 1946 to reunite with Chris, the couple opened a series of hair dressing salons.
Mr Patchell said his hairdressing business began with a simple job in a Dandenong salon.
“It was the only job I could get,” he said, recalling a period of high unemployment in Dandenong.
“It was strange – while I got the job, hundreds were drooling that I got it, because there wasn’t the work about town.
“I finished up, with the wife, running and owning four ladies’ hairdressing salons in Dandenong.
“I also went into building development and had many years in that.”
Mr Patchell says he has been lucky to have so far lived a wonderful life, and always believes that businesses should put back into the community.
His return favour to Dandenong has come in various forms that would make most peoples’ CVs look empty by comparison.
He has been a member of the executive committee of the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce since 1951, and played a vital role in opening the Dandenong Club during the immediate post-war years.
As a chamber executive committee member, Mr Patchell recalls a turning point in Dandenong’s history – moving from a manual telecommunications switchboard to the automated dialling system now taken for granted.
Mr Patchell has also been involved with the Dandenong Agricultural and Pastoral Society, the Dandenong Festival of Music and Art for Youth, and the Rotary Club of Dandenong, and Dandenong RSL – each for more than 50 years.
But above all else, Mr Patchell says he couldn’t have done it without his loving wife, Chris – the first person he told of his award due to tight embargos on the news.
“I would like to point out that if it wasn’t for such an understanding wife, a wonderful wife that put up with me while I invested time on various projects over these years, then I wouldn’t have been able to do it,” he said.
“Or I might have been deported by now,” he added with a laugh.
