Last week, a large crowd in Newcastle farewelled Evan Longworth who passed away after a lengthy illness.
Evan lived for CREST with his unbroken membership going back to the late seventies. His passion showed in his love of Newcastle as initially as a monitor and then as Divisional Operations Director / Team Leader, a position he held for most of his time in CREST. On several occasions he stepped up to the mark to fill the State Director position.
He was a big believer in emergency channel monitoring, where he would have accumulated hundreds of thousands of hours responding to many thousands of callers for assistance. He led the Division / Team through several major bushfires and floods, the Newcastle Earthquake and even the grounding of the vessel “Pasha Bulker” in June 2007. When home base monitoring faded he focused the Division on providing traffic control and safety communication services, which provided an income in donation to allow Newcastle to purchase and maintain, a Communications truck, several radio trailers and a truck load of radios.
Family, friends, local CREST supporters and colleagues from CREST NSW and CREST Victoria gathered to farewell Evan on Friday 30 April 2021. Stories were told of Evan’s early life as a keen cyclist and a lover of animals particularly his birds and dogs. Evan was a practical joker and an early identity on CB radio in the Newcastle area. We heard about his long dedication to CREST and his support of the Native Animal Trust Fund Inc.
He will be greatly missed by all members of CREST NSW.