FORMER Evanston Gardens Primary School principal Ron Gartrell is remembered for being a husband, a father and a friend.

Mr Gartrell, who died at home a fortnight ago after battling cancer, was farewelled by his closest family and friends in a small, private funeral last Monday.

Mr Gartrell was born in Mannum and attended Mannum, Birdwood High and Norwood high schools before graduating as a teacher from Wattle Park Teachers College.

He taught at Gawler in 1967 before being promoted into mathematical science and then attended Orroroo.

Ron married the love of his life Avril in 1970 and they continued travelling across South Australia with work, going to Keith, Kapunda and many more locations.

They travelled overseas on long service leave and then returned to Gawler for their two daughters’ education, Gabriel and Selena, who both attended Gawler High.

He would take over as principal at Evanston Gardens Primary for 19 years, becoming chair of the District Principals Association.

“He was very well liked by his colleagues, very switched on, a very organised man,” Mrs Gartrell said.

The couple travelled to England in 1993 for a year and Canada in 2000 on teaching exchanges and had some remarkable experiences.

“The whole purpose of these exchanges was to be an ambassador for Australia, which Ron was, and was very good,” Mrs Gartrell said.

“He always was on the panels in these other countries, for people who wanted to exchange to Australia.

“He also presented the teachers in England to Princess Margaret.

“They had a garden party, and Ron was chosen out of all the exchange people to present all the other teachers to Princess Margaret, so that was nice.

“He has done a lot of good things, but he would never tell you these things. He was a fairly private person.

“In Singapore, everybody had a multinational company to back them whereas we had Ron’s one wage from Australia and we couldn’t afford half the things that most of the people that we’ve met could.

“We had this beat-up Volkswagen and Ron was invited to The Astana, which is the palace of the president.

“He rolled up in in the beat-up Volkswagen and the guards were very, very nervous until he pulled out hisinvitation.”

Mrs Gartrell also reflected on his sporting talents, which ran in his blood.

“He was very jovial, loved to tell stories, had lots of fun,” she said. “He was a lovely person and he enjoyed life. He was a very good footballer.

“He probably could’ve played in the SANFL but chose not to. His grandfather played in the 1898 South Adelaide grand final, and we have his guernsey.

“His dad was a good footballer at Mannum and Ron was always a good footballer. He won best and fairest at Eudunda, at Orroroo, best team man at Keith.

“He played for Gawler Central in 1967, And when we came back in ’84, he decided he’d try again, but he actually injured his ankle.

“He was secretary at Apex for a while, played tennis, mixed netball, tennis and golf out at Sandy Creek.

“Sport, people and community service were things he always did very well.”

While his career and social life was important, friends and family were No.1.

“He’s an only child and the family was so important to him and friends were so important,” Mrs Gartrell said.

“He was a humble man, worked extremely hard, enjoyed people’s company, made people very, very comfortable.

“Towards the end of his life, he didn’t let people know he was sick. The whole reason for that was that he wanted them to remember him as Ron not to remember him as that person who had cancer.

“Right up until he couldn’t manage to have visitors, people knew he was losing weight, but he had never told them what the whole story was.

“He was protecting his friends so that they could just treat him as Ron.”