John Russell first started playing tennis at high school. It was one of the few sports that he could play then due to contracting polio in his leg. John joined Forrestfield Tennis Club, FTC), when he moved from the country to Forrestfield. Due to the polio, John has mainly played tennis for the social aspect and has not played pennants. Never the less, John is a more than handy tennis player.

Few, if any, have worked so hard for the club over the years that John has been a member.  He has spent a total of twenty-six years on the FTC’s committee. He served eight years as vice president and amazingly eighteen years as club treasurer. John also took over as president in 2009 very early in the year when the current president suddenly resigned early in the year.  

Over many years, John has worked with lots of people on FTC committees. Here are comments about John by some of those people:

• In committee meetings, over the years, John has always been the voice of reason.  Whenever a situation was becoming confrontational, John brought us back to the spirit of the issue and let everyone see that there are better ways of looking at things, that involve working together,

• John has a happy knack of being fair and reasonable and was able to influence others on various committees to have them consider what was really important for the club when making decisions, 

• In his many years as treasurer and in the years before and after, he has been nothing short of super dependable,

• I would have lost count of the jobs John has undertaken around the club over the years, including arranging the upgrade of the kitchen and doing numerous tasks that included climbing ladders that would now be deemed unwise under WHS

• His ability to remember things that had happened years ago and when they happened is amazing and very valuable in recording important club events and special moments,

• I don't think John has missed a busy bee since he joined the club 40 plus years ago. However, this has not stopped him from putting his hand up to do extra work around the club such as mowing the lawn, cleaning the bitumen and brick pavement.  John was also the person that the committee would go to when the toilet cisterns were either leaking or not working and he would always do the job without any fuss or bother.  The kitchen refurbishment was also taken on by John and he completed the job almost single handed.

• When the club was preparing to instal courts five and six, there was one large tree stump surrounded by general scrubby bush that needed to be removed and in John's typical quiet manner he organised a large machine from his work and the job was done. 

 You could go on and on about what John has done for the club over the years but it's probably his happy, friendly and reliable character combined with understated humour that makes him a popular and treasured member of our club.   

Deservedly, John Russell was awarded life membership in 1991. One of the very first life members to be inducted into the Forrestfield Tennis Club.