JOHN Frederick Gordon died in his sleep at the Bega District Hospital during the early hours of Sunday, February 11, 2007.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer five days before Christmas, after having survived throat cancer in 2004.

He was the son of Beryl Mary (nee Cramp) and John Herbert Gordon MBE.

John is survived by his wife Barbara and their families Robyn, Mark, Rachael, Amy and Sarah Cooper - David, Jenny, Tova and Jacob; Peter, Liese, Veronica and Grace; Mark, Talita, Rhiannon and Nicholas Williams; Ian, Daniel and Renee Williams.

Also Ian's partner Vanna, Liana and Eleeza Pozza and great grandson Alexander Williams.

His brother Graham predeceased him on March 6, 1993.

Sister-in-law Marie, nephew Garry and Virginia Gordon, niece Angela, Mark, Geoffrey and Rebecca Connell.

Brother-in-law Brian, sister-in-law Patricia, nephew Bernard and niece Victoria Smith.

Sister-in-law Lynn, brother-in-law Michael O'Brien, niece Jane and partner Steve.

His father worked for a real estate business in Sydney and with the onset of the great depression moved the family back to the security of the family farm 'Fairview' at Toothdale in the Candelo district.

John worked with his father Jack on the family farm 'Fairview' and eventually purchased the adjoining property, which had been owned by his uncle Bill Gordon, Jack's brother.

He attended the one-teacher/one-room school located between Candelo and Toothdale.

Furthering his education at the Bega High School where now the Bega Primary School stands, reaching matriculation level.

After high school, John studied chemical engineering in the field of animal genetics in Sydney and worked at MacMasters's Veterinary Science Laboratory and also for the CSIRO part time.

Growing up during the years of the great depression and World War II had a profound effect on him and influenced his view of the world - he knew that family was paramount and waste was to be discouraged.

In 1952, John met and married Patricia Jackson at St Jude's Church of England, Bowral.

They had three children - Robyn, David and Peter born in 1953, 1954 and 1958.

John raised his family in the most traditional rural Australian way.

The family regularly attended the Presbyterian Church in Wolumla and later in Bega where he was for a time an elder of the Presbyterian Church.

It was during these early years that John made his children aware of the importance of honesty and respect for other people and their property, which no doubt fostered the good relations that John enjoyed with his neighbours.

Through the drought years he had to find supplementary work to support the family and the farm, during which time he drove a petrol delivery truck for COR Petroleum that later became BP Australia and enjoyed contact with the farmers when he delivered their petrol to the farms.

He often expressed his pride in having many good friends from the Bega district that had been able to join the services and serve their country with distinction, as he had been too young to join up when World War II broke out.

In the 60s wool and beef prices slumped and drought had its effect, so when Jack sold his farm and retired to Tathra, John also sold up and moved into Bega where he opened an insurance agency with MLC Insurance Company.

He would travel long distances and worked late into the evenings to ensure that his clients received true and honest information on their policy holdings.

In the early 70s Pat and John parted ways and he was left with Peter to make a new life for himself.

John then met and married Barbara Hazel Williams (nee Smith) at the Presbyterian Church on March 18, 1978.

John was active in the Bega-Tathra Conservation Society and proud of his contribution to the construction of the nature walks that now exist at Bournda.

He was also controller for civil defence from 1977 to 78 and continued serving until about 1984 when he decided to retire.

He was also instrumental in providing help during times of flood and getting people out of their homes when they were flooded - seeing that they were brought to safety.

He had many interests over the years.

He was a member of the APH Society, which included the Candelo and Bega Show Societies.

He was a member of the local bushfire brigades that were instrumental in starting a credit union in Candelo, helped get a bus service started, was a member of the Family Museum in Bega and a member of the Bega Historical Society.

He was most interested in genealogy and with some prompting was urged to put pen to paper to record all of the things that were stored in his mind of the district and the families over the years that he'd spent in the Bega Valley.

This was a massive undertaking and he started making tape recordings as his father had done previously and writing long hand into books and on scraps of paper, producing a small book of the Gordon family history that he then sent off to the immediate family.

At about this time Barbara decided that if the year 2000 'Y2K bug' didn't do any harm then she would invest in a computer but John's reply to that was, "If she spent all that money on a computer she would never use it!" - but every time Barbara wanted to use it, guess who was on it?

John decided that it was an excellent tool for genealogy research.

Because of his amazing memory he could tell various families of their hereditary and genealogy off by heart and was able to relate to his younger cousin Jim Kemp (whose father had died when he was only a child) about his father walking around the verandah of the Gordon house playing the bagpipes which Jim might have not known had John not relayed the story to him.

Jim and John then became close as they worked together on the family genealogy and with the help of his youngest son Peter; he was able to process this information and do a complete family history with photographs producing a most detailed family tree.

John was a remarkably good man of conservative views, a typical product of the traditional family Presbyterian upbringing of his time by being very stable, steady and moderate.

He held the idea that it was his responsibility to impart this on his family, the very best of values, and we can see today that those same values appear in his children and grandchildren.

He was quiet and courteous to others, soft spoken and content.

He was indeed one of nature's gentle men and a true quiet achiever.

He was laid to rest on Friday, February 16, in Bega cemetery.

May he rest in peace.