By Casey Neill
Roy Aspinall has been part of Sandown Racecourse since it opened, and will be forever more.
The Dandenong Retail Traders’ Association founding president died on Saturday 3 September following a long health battle.
He’ll be farewelled at Le Pine Funerals in Dandenong at 2.30pm on Monday 12 September.
In his final weeks, Mr Aspinall organised with Melbourne Racing Club to have his ashes scattered at the finishing post at the Springvale race track.
“I was there the day it opened,” he told the Journal.
“Sandown has been my life.”
Mr Aspinall wrote for nationals and dailies as a journalist for more than 50 years, and for several local papers in the last 20 years of his career as a freelancer.
He enjoyed what he called “a special association” with the Dandenong Journal since the mid-1990s when he started sending out press releases regarding race meetings at Sandown, the Dandenong Retail Traders’ Association and the Rotary CIub of Noble Park Charity Bowls Day.
His final Spring Racing Fever column appeared in the Journal on Monday 1 August.
Mr Aspinall was the inaugural Dandenong Retail Traders’ Association chairman in 1996 and held the position for 16 years.
When he stepped down on 27 November 2012, he received a letter under seal from then-Greater Dandenong Mayor Angela Long on behalf of the council, “in recognition of his contribution to the Dandenong business community”.
On the night she said that Mr Aspinall was “a powerhouse of the local business community” whose skill as a trader and organiser was unending.
“Roy has worked tirelessly for the improvement of the association and Dandenong,” she said.
Successor Glenys Cooper from Compleat Angler presented Mr Aspinall with a plaque for his efforts.
“I don’t think it would be in such a good place without it,” she said.
He closed the doors to his business Highway Bowls Centre in June 2013.
At the time its 33-year run made it the oldest lawn bowls shop in Victoria.
He opened it with Margaret Spencer at 73 Walker Street on 28 May 1980 and three years later moved it up the hill to 61 Walker Street, where it remained until Mr Aspinall’s retirement.
He referred to his loyal customers as friends.
Mr Aspinall also served as a member of the City of Greater Dandenong Drug and Alcohol Advisory Committee, and in 2003 received a Centenary of Federation Medal for services to the community.
