Vale Brian Stevens PHF

07/11/25 – 11/02/21 | Detail courtesy Nick Stevens & Brian Becconsall

Brian Stevens devoted his life to his family and his local community. He was an active Rotarian for 45 years, 43 of which were with the Kenmore Rotary Club, of which he was a charter member in 1969.

Brian grew up in Toowong during the depression years, and like many families from that era, money was scarce. He attended Toowong primary school and was then fortunate to be awarded a scholarship to Churchie where he completed his Junior Certificate. With his older siblings away due to the war, he remained at home to nurse his ailing mother. When she died in 1944, he signed on with the Navy, aged 18.

After completing his naval training, he joined the HMAS Nizam undertaking escort duties in the Pacific in the last stages of the war. After the Japanese surrender, the Nizam was the first Australian ship into Tokyo Harbour, remaining there until after the surrender was signed.

After the war, Brian completed an accounting traineeship with White and Hancock. This led to a career in company management with him holding senior positions with Sunbeam and then Carricks Limited.

Brian married Nancy Burcher in 1951 and together they raised their daughter Ruth, and three sons Paul, Nick, and Tim in the family home that they built on acreage in Fig Tree Pocket.

Brian was always heavily involved in the Kenmore and Fig Tree Pocket communities. In the late 1950’s he was on the committee that started the Kenmore District Kindergarten. In the same era, he was very active in the Fig Tree Pocket Progress Association, who were heavily involved in a series of protests relating to the proposed location of the Centenary Highway.

In 1967 Brian joined the South Brisbane Rotary Club. This was the start of his 45-year continuous association with Rotary that played an important role in his life. In 1969 he joined the Kenmore Rotary Club as a charter member. He was the Club’s third President in 1971 and held many other positions on its committees over the years. He was awarded a Paul Harris Fellow in 1988. He retired from active rotary service in 2012, aged 85.

Brian loved the outdoors. In the early days there were regular family camping trips with lots of bushwalking in National Parks around Southeast Queensland. In 1970 Brian and Nancy had the foresight to build a holiday shack on South Stradbroke Island. This primitive shack, with no electricity or even hot water in the early days, became the centre of family holidays with lots of swimming, sailing, and fishing during the day and games of cards or monopoly in the evenings.

His involvement with and support of the local community continued through Rotary. He was an active member of an active club and was always involved in fund raising activities or providing volunteer labour whether it be for painting the Glenleighden school or selling tickets for the annual Kenmore Rotary Christmas Trailer raffle.

A particular project that Brian was proud of and thoroughly enjoyed was helping to start the Brigidine College Interact Club and then guiding it for many years.

Having a desire to have a regular game of tennis with friends, Brian formed a tennis group in 1982. Many of the group were like minded members of Kenmore Rotary. Brian passed on the organisation of the group and retired from playing in 2011. The same tennis group, including some present and past Kenmore Rotarians, are still playing, almost 40 years later.

Brian believed in the ideals of Rotary. He always kept a paperweight inscribed with the Rotary 4-way test on his desk and he applied that test to all aspects of his working and private life.

Rotary Learning Centre: Did You Know?

Did you know that you can now access the Rotary Learning Centre on your mobile device? You can click here for detailed instructions, or following these steps to get started:

1. On your mobile device, use a browser to go to my.rotary.org and sign in to My Rotary.

2. Tap the ≡ menu at the top left of your screen.

3. Tap the plus sign next to Learning & Reference, and then choose Learning Center.

4. Go to your app store and download Go.Learn. Don’t open it from here.

5. Return to your browser. From the same Learning Center page in My Rotary, tap the link to the Learning Center.

For more information on Go.Learn, you can email learn@rotary.org. You can browse the Learning Centre accessed from My Rotary at any time.