SELFLESS volunteer and sports lover Joe Brown dedicated his life to helping out the Keilor community.
Sadly, the father-of-seven died more than two decades ago at age 63 due to illness.
Recently the Keilor Historical Society and Keilor Sports Club asked Brimbank City Council to rename the Keilor Recreation Reserve on Old Calder Highway after Mr Brown.
The groups have succeeded in their mission to honour Mr Brown’s memory.
On 1 March at 5.30pm, a plaque will be revealed at the reserve, officially naming the site’s oval in honour of Mr Brown.
Mr Brown began playing football for Keilor as a teenager during the Second World War and was also a champion cricketer.
His individual honours included Best Clubman awards in 1959 and 1960, but Mr Brown was also a first-class administrator.
Mr Brown was Keilor Football Club president in 1957 and 1958, then club secretary for 12 years.
In the mid-1960s, Mr Brown worked with the council to build the club’s present change rooms and renovate the oval.
He became a community hero in 1985, after successfully leading a protest against the former Keilor Council’s plans to extend its municipal offices onto the Keilor Recreation Reserve and relocate its sporting clubs.
Mr Brown was also one of the main organisers of the Keilor Gift held in February each year, sourcing logs for the woodchop and watering the running track.
Mr Brown and his wife Shirley were both members of the Keilor Historical Society.
Mrs Brown said she was overjoyed the council would name the Keilor Recreation Reserve’s oval after her beloved husband.
“I was amazed, I thought he’d finished his day here and I’m very honoured they thought of it and have followed through with it,” she said.
Mrs Brown said her seven grandchildren would be delighted to see their grandfather’s name on signs at the site.
“They will be rapt,” she said.
