Principal of a successful panel beating business, Kevin ‘Rowdy’ McClelland with ‘Butch’. He loved dogs and had several on his farm at Kingsvale, near Goulburn. Photo: McClelland family.
Far from being a hindrance, Kevin McClelland’s loss of hearing as a youngster left him with a compensating gift according to his son Robert, recalling one of Goulburn’s successful businessmen.
Coming after a freakish mishap, the total loss of hearing sharpened his eye for detail while lipreading and panel beating.
“I remember doing panel beating with him,” Robert said. “You would be repairing a car door, using your sense of feel to find the highs and lows. You would think it was right, and give it to him. He would run his hand over it and say, ‘It’s low there; it’s high there’.
“He was a phenomenal panel beater; the guy could move steel,” he said. “He would file finish without using body finish or lead wiping.”
Kevin was born 26 July 1940 at Branston Private Hospital in Goulburn. Fifteen years after Kevin’s death in August 2009, his children and brother Jim McClelland, another successful Goulburn businessman, recount his singlemindedness in overcoming childhood setbacks.
Kevin and Jim lived on their family’s 1156-acre farm “Wattle Vale’’, five kilometres from Bungonia and rode their bikes each day to and from school in the village.
Overcoming scarlet fever when he was about five years old, Kevin was on a billy cart being pushed by Jim when a 44-gallon drum crashed down over his head. His hearing began to deteriorate from that day onwards.
The brothers were split up later when ill health forced their parents to sell “Willow Vale” in 1952.
Kevin, who spoke with such a loud voice he was nicknamed ‘Rowdy’ moved into Goulburn and before school worked on a milk run with another youngster, Robert Hearne, who became his lifelong best friend.
Following a stint as a welder for John and Shirley Powell from International Agency’s truck repairer and welding firm in Goldsmith Street, he left to begin his apprenticeship with Don Chalker at Southern District Panel Beaters.
“A lot of the older guys did their apprenticeship there, like (Terry) Shadow Hartnett, and Michael Brennan, who became a TAFE teacher and taught all the apprentices in Goulburn before the class was taken to Moss Vale,” Robert said.
He said his father underwent several operations, including one that drained a large amount of puss from his head. “He said he felt a large weight being lifted from him,” his son said.
Kevin McClelland on his wedding day, 3 October 1959, with his bride Barbara and their attendants, including best friend Robert Hearne on the right. Photo: McClelland family.
Kevin’s eldest daughter Maureen Schroder, now living at Nowra, said she saw the same specialist as her father, who told her a damaged nerve prevented doctors from restoring Rowdy’s hearing loss.
About 1967 he left Don Chalker and began his own business, North Goulburn Smash Repairs on the corner of Wayo and Murac streets which he operated until he retired due to a bowel cancer diagnosis about 2000.
Maureen and her husband Paul ran Paul Schroder’s Mechanical Repairs next to her father’s business until about the same time Rowdy retired.
The youngest of four children including Maureen, Debbie and Joanne, Robert craved his father’s company and loved accompanying him and Robert Hearne on fishing trips to Burrinjuck Dam. They were caught in such a heavy downpour of rain once they had to up stumps quickly from their island campsite.
Another enduring memory is racing in Rowdy’s boat, ‘Slow Motion’ which was anything but slow and Robert Hearne bellowing at a low-flying pelican in the breeze.
Rowdy bought a farm near Marble Hill Road, Kingsvale, where he lived later, after separating from his first wife Barbara. Father and son slept in a caravan next to a shed, which was their lounge room.
A pet ram on the property was in the nasty habit of sneaking up behind them and knocking them off their feet – until he struck once too often.
“I could hear this bang … bang … bang,” Robert said, recounting the frosty cold morning he was woken early from his slumber, and going outside to see what the commotion was about.
“Here is the Old Man in his underpants and singlet with a wheelbarrow having a duelling match with the pet ram,” he said. “He was wearing slippers. He was out having a pee when the ram snuck up on him in the dark.”
Rowdy (centre) and friends and his V8-Ford Pilot which he smashed and rebuilt repeatedly, honing his panel beating skills. Photo: McClelland family collection.
Following Rowdy’s death, Maureen and her daughter Erin penned an ‘Ode to Kevin’ which included:
He was the captain and he ran a tight ship.
He pushed us along when he got out the whip.
He rose in the morning, was on time and swift,
if anyone was late, he called them the afternoon shift.
Loading ...
