Sir Don Rowlands: Karapiro legend

Sir Don Rowlands rowed straight and true in outstanding contributions towards rowing. Tuesday his funeral was held in Auckland, while at Maadi his successors rowed on. Probably he would be very happy with that.

Sir Don was an elite rower and an exemplar of what it meant to be a true supporter. A few of those who knew him and the example he set for rowing, talked to the Waikato Independent  about the man everyone calls the godfather of rowing.

Peter Sinclair has over 45 years of contributions to rowing. The former elite rower won the New Zealand lightweight doubles sculling titles with Frank Sullivan in 1980, 1981, and 1983.

In 2013 he won the award for New Zealand rowing administrator of the year. Peter is at Maadi to support the rowers from Southland and represent Waihopai rowing club.

“Sir Don was an excellent leader and paved the way  for a lot of championships like Maadi, world champs and helping out Australian rowing champs over there.

“We’ll obviously miss him for being around the place, cause he’s one of the characters of rowing. He could have fun. He knew the history. He knew what we had to do right to get world championships and put New Zealand first.

“We’re from opposite ends of the country. I’m right down the bottom. But he’d always give you a nod and recognize who you were, and say gidday to you. Year after year you’d see him at the champs and theAGMs, always there for rowing.”

Don Baron. coach for Hamilton Boys U17 and U18, said Sir Don was  “a great person, a great supporter of secondary school rowing, of all rowing masters. He was just an awesome supporter of anybody.

“If anybody wanted to ask a question of him he would always reply. He was a very humble man who loved the sport of  rowing. He would do anything for it as you can see, the legacy he left behind is in the Don Rowlands centre.”

Mark James is head coach for Marlborough Girls College. A former elite rower winning a bronze medal in the eights at the 1978 World Championships at Lake Karapiro.

“He was a wonderful man, he was so gentle and caring, but he also lead from the front, he was always here. He was the guy who inspired people to come and help. He lead by example.

“He ran the volunteer group of people that basically built the change in course for the 1978 champs. He was involved in managing and selecting teams of a high calibre that brought New Zealand to that point of international recognition.

“Those wonderful pictures of Don back in the old days in 1978 with his broken arm. He broke his arm when he was working on the barge putting the course down. He was here everyday, he was a wonderful man.”

More than  2000 students are participating in this year’s Maadi. Some may only know Sir Don Rowland as a name rather than one of rowing’s legendary personalities. His influence has extended to rowers both past and present, rowing clubs, coaches, and volunteers.

Mark says we all have heroes. “To young people their  coaches are [those heroes] or the people who are running the club. For me it was the person sitting at the door of the club, that said hello to me every afternoon. And chased me for the money that I had to pay for the regattas and entry fees.

“And Don was like that in his own environment in West End. He was the person that we saw when we came to Karapiro. His vision lives here.”