VALE JILL SMITH
It with great sadness that we have to report the passing of one of our club’s most dedicated and hard-working members in Jill Smith, after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 85 years old.
Jill Smith was Wyoming's longest serving Secretary, occupying that position for nine years between 1978 and 1986. She took over the job at a difficult time with the club going through a transition period after the retirement of most of the "old guard" from the executive and marked, for the first time, by a decline in player registrations.
Together with new president Kevin Best, Jill provided the stability, drive and sheer hard work required to check this decline and to attract new players to the club. The extent of their success was such that team numbers grew from 17 in 1977 to 41 in 1983, with a record number of 585 registered players in the latter year.
Apart from the 'normal' work of a club secretary, Jill became the publisher, editor, typesetter, printer and distributor of the club's new monthly newsletter "Tiger Tales" which first appeared in 1978. The increase in the size of the club meant that there was a similar increase in both the size of the bulletin and in its circulation. Despite this Jill was able to produce it month after month for the next nine years.
Jill Smith's services to the club were recognized with the awarding to her of the Clubperson of the Year award on three occasions (1979, 83 and 84), and in 1982 she joined husband Graham as a Life Member.
When son Stephen left Wyoming to further his soccer career at representative level, Jill joined the CCSA committee where she served four years as the treasurer and publicity officer of the representative club and played a large part in setting up the Margins Cup competition in 1987. In 1989 Jill was awarded the CCSA Soccer Person of the Year and Life Membership.
Outside of football Jill was a volunteer for the Red Cross Hot Line as well as assisting at the Legacy Nursing Home, Knitting Trauma Teddies, the Wyoming Samaritans and both the local Uniting and Anglican churches.
On behalf of the Wyoming Football Club we pass on our sincere condolences to Jill’s husband Graham, children Sue, Jenny and Steve all of whom played with the club, and their families.
