THE Shoalhaven has farewelled a one-time Australian Champion cyclist, master printer, philosopher and one of life’s true gentlemen, Frank Gould, who died in Berry on December 8, aged 98.
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Born in Lakemba in 1919, Frank was eighth of nine children. His father ran a produce store in Dulwich Hill.
Frank’s brothers were sent to their grandmother’s in Woonona to escape the Sydney influenza epidemic and he joined them there for many childhood holidays, armed with a slingshot and a sense of adventure.
Frank left school at 15 and began a printing apprenticeship in Sydney soon after.
It was around this time that Frank began racing bicycles at State Champion level.
At one time he was the Australian Champion over 25 miles on an unposted road - between Parramatta and St Marys. At the age of 17 he also won the Australian Championship for the Lithgow to Bathurst race.
The outbreak of World War II meant the premature end to Frank’s racing career. He was called up to drive trucks in 1940 and was set to join an infantry battalion but an accident saw him miss his unit’s departure. Instead, his printing skills were noted and Frank joined the Australian Printing Unit in Toowoomba.
The outbreak of the war also introduced Frank to his future wife Dorothy. The pair met in Parramatta Park and were married in December 1942.
Dorothy followed Frank to Queensland, where the first of the couple’s four daughters Heather, Maree, Susan and Alison was born.
After the war a restless Frank took up rabbit trapping with his father-in-law. This was followed by a stint driving trucks for the Snowy Hydroelectric Scheme but he ultimately returned to printing – a career he had on and off for nearly 50 years.
In 1951 the Goulds moved to Peakhurst and in 1960 Frank bought his own printing press and started his own printing firm with his nephew. He worked there until his retirement in 1983.
After retiring to Berry in 1988, Frank rediscovered and shared his love for the art of limestone lithography with artists and university students until he was 95.
Another highlight of Frank’s retirement came when at the age of 93, he travelled to Gallipoli for the Anzac Day Dawn Service.
Lithography and the sharing of wisdom were hobbies Frank maintained, along with fossicking trips to the tip and drives to Nowra, Kangaroo Valley and the Kiama Blowhole for a sandwich until he was well into his 90s.
Frank Gould’s was a life rich in love, well lived.
