This is a brief tribute to Dawn on behalf of the Levin Bowling Club of which Dawn was a very prominent and respected member.
Dawn joined the Levin West Women’s Bowling Club in the late 1980s. At that time the men’s and women’s clubs operated as separate entities before they amalgamated in 1996. Our Honours Board shows that Dawn won the junior women’s singles in 1988 and club records indicate that she was Secretary of the women’s club from 1989 to 1992. After amalgamation Dawn won the Levin women’s open singles title three times between 1999 and 2004 and skipped a number of teams to club titles.
I joined the Levin club in 2001 and for the first three seasons Dawn and I played together in the mixed pairs championship. Dawn was a very competent player and we twice made the final of that event without actually winning it. She was also women’s selector at that time. I understand that around that time Dawn’s Levin fours team won a tournament at Waitarere Beach which was rewarded with a trip to Australia.
From 2003 to 2006 our club adopted a different structure as the Levin Bowls and Recreation Club which encompassed bowls, indoor bowls and petanque. Dawn was a member of the committee of that club and was the chairperson in 2006 when the club reverted to its original administrative structure.
For the past few years Dawn has been in poor health living in a residential facility in Palmerston North. Dawn passed away on Tuesday.
I have talked to Celia, Edna and Ian about Dawn’s contribution to the club. Though it now some years since Dawn was an active member of our club the older members remember Dawn with fondness and respect and to indicate their esteem for her Dawn was made an Honorary Member of the club in 2014.
Dawn McQuillan (far left) and the members of the LB&RC, May 2006
Ken Hayward