passed away peacefully at Nelson Hospital on May 18, 2017, aged 87 years. Dearly loved husband of the late Doreen. Loved father and father-in-law of Karen (deceased) and Gordon, Mike and Yvonne (Motueka), and Tony and Trudy (Motueka). Loved Grandpa of Luke and Elana, Jonathan, Sarah and Bryce, Bianca, Josh and Dè Anne, Rhys and Nicole and Zoe. Loved Great-Grandpa ofHarvey, Malise, Theo and Elijah.
The friends of Don are respectfully informed that his funeral service will be held at the Motueka Memorial RSA, on Tuesday, May 23, 2017, commencing at1.30pm. His interment will follow at the Motueka Cemetery.
Target Shooting Nelson have provided the following:
It is with much sadness that we advise of the passing of Don Fraser (aged 87 yrs) on 18 May 2017, who has been heavily involved over a long number of years with Target Shooting Nelson both as a participant and as an officer bearer. Although no longer actively shooting he still maintained a strong interest in our sport and still attended meetings and some shoots. He took an active interest in the building of the new range at Saxtons Field and had a shoot on that range recently (gaining the dubious honour of being the first person to overload on it).
Don was a member of the Tasman Club since he started shooting in Nelson in the early 1970s as well as shooting for the Nelson Outdoor Club for approximately 17 years. He has also held numerous positions within those Clubs. Don has represented Nelson in its Open team since 1971 until 2014 when ill health forced him to give it up. Still he maintained a high interest in the sport encouraging new members and giving us the benefit of his enormous wealth of experience. He has won our Closed Championships (Master Grade) five times, and the Open Championship in 1986 . He has won the Veterans competition at Nelson over 10 times. He shot in the South Island Open team 10 times, and made the Slazenger Shield team in 2000 and also the Lord Wakefield International Match in the same year. He won our Champion of Champions 4 times and was Nelson’s top rep shooter twice. This was enough to make him the first person to receive give him the prestigious Gold Rifle Award, the highest recognition to performance by our Association. Only two other people have received this award since.
Don was President of Nelson from 1981 to 1985 and from 2004 to 2015 put together our local magazine called “The Bull” (with the assistance of his wife Doreen). The editorials he did always made for interesting reading. In recognition of his contribution to our sport Don was awarded Life Membership (along with his wife Doreen) many years ago. He competed at many Masters Games both in New Zealand and Australia over later years gaining many medals.
Don will be sadly missed by our members as he has been such a big part of our Association. Our thoughts and sympathy go out to Don’s family.