It is with profound sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Gymea United Football Club stalwart (icon) Mrs Eileen Ward. Mrs Ward passed away on Sunday 21st December, 2025.
Today, 21st January a Celebration of Life was held at Doltone House, Sylvania.
Thank you to our Life Member, Darryl Clark, for representing the club today and for so thoughtfully delivering the following eulogy on behalf of GUFC –
For those who don’t know me, I’m Darryl Clark, one of the Life Members of Gymea United Football Club and I was fortunate enough to have known Mrs Eileen Ward over many years, firstly as a Club member, then fellow Committee member and later during my time on the Association.
I would like to share with you some reflections and memories of Mrs. Ward. These are a distillation of not just my reflections, but of several senior Club identities who were also privileged to know her.
There were three things that really stood out with Mrs Ward.
Firstly, was the respect and admiration everyone had for her. She was almost universally addressed by those of all ages within the Club as ‘Mrs. Ward’. It just seemed ‘right’ and ‘appropriate’ to do so. Few called her Eileen.
No matter how big, ugly, scary or angry members of the club were, they were immediately quiet and polite in her presence. She was always, always known as Mrs Ward to them.
We cannot recall anyone else in any similar situation at a community organisation being so respected in this way.
Secondly, a central feature was Mrs Ward’s total and unwavering 22 year commitment to the Club she loved, 18 of those years serving with distinction as Secretary, most of that time with her husband Brian as the Club’s Treasurer.
An important component of her duties as Secretary was to be the face of Gymea with the Association which she did with her trademark easy rapport with everyone and her high level of competence. Again, she was held in high regard by both the Association members and her counterparts from the other Shire clubs.
Thirdly, she will be remembered for her gentle strength, her wit, intelligence, and the amount of care she gave to every player, every team, every manager, all the coaches, the Club and the greater Gymea community.
But don’t be confused. Mrs Ward’s gentle strength could be a lot more strength than gentleness should you stupidly ring the Wards between 6 and 7 pm, the anointed dinner time in the Ward household.
One of Mrs Ward’s other less well-known talents or gifts was an almost physic ability to immediately recall a player’s name on meeting them just once. The number of young players whose face would light up at registration when referred to by name was always a treat to behold. It was not only the players mind you, but Mrs Ward would also likely know both parents by name, all the siblings and their long-lost cousins visiting from Canada!
If you think about this in terms of our high tech, fast-paced world of today , if GUFC added around 100 players a year, Mrs Ward across her time at the club probably had to memorise the names of almost 20000 people. In today’s terms Mrs Ward was an influencer. Not sure she would be happy to be referred to as that! The big difference between Mrs Ward and the modern-day influencer, is Mrs Ward actually new everyone’s name and she really cared about them.
We recall the days before the internet arrived at GUFC, when everything was done by hand. Gymea then had the largest senior membership of any Club in the Shire. There were three registration days with the last one being a huge day…all cash, no cards, with queues all the way up the goal line of Gymea No.2, with all hands on deck and usually on a very hot day. Who was there ensuring things ran smoothly and calming everyone down…Mrs Ward.
With the season approaching, she would be in Ground Control seeing everything was totally under control, handing out uniforms, hot pressing numbers onto shirts, organising junior referees and answering questions from coaches and managers. During the season, she seemed to be in Ground Control virtually all weekend.
As you would appreciate, one of the most difficult times at GUFC was when Mrs Ward decided to call it a day from the committee. It was a complete revelation to those on the committee at the time the amount of work she actually got through. Mrs Ward was always there and always quietly and seamlessly making everything work. When she wrote down all the tasks she did, we needed at least four people to replace her…. a secretary, an assistant secretary, a competition secretary, a communications person etc. All of these roles were duly filled and every one of new committee members involved in this transition was amazed at the extent of the tasks that were previously completed by the one person, Mrs Ward.
GUFC was very lucky that Mrs Ward continued to be just a phone call away and always answered any SOS by the new committee, including assisting in the hall on those hot days with registration. She was definitely the ‘go to’ person at the Club. Her detailed knowledge of all aspects of the Club operations and of its history was extraordinary.
The growth and success of GUFC, now 135 teams, would not have been possible without the impact she has had on the Club. This was fittingly recognised when the ‘Ellis-Ward Ladies Pavilion’ at Gymea was opened in 2015, named after her and Ruby Ellis. She was given Giant of The Year in 1984 and then Life Membership of GUFC, followed by the SSFA Merit Award in 1998 and the Football NSW State Award in 2005.
Simply put, along with Mr Ward, Mrs Ward the unassuming ‘little English Lady’ who guided Gymea through each season was the best administrator this club has ever had, and is ever likely to have.
The Gymea United Football Club, the Gymea GIANTS, have indeed lost a true GIANT!