Herbert Fitzroy ‘Roy’ Stacy was commemorated on Friday, with over 400 people from coming from far and wide to pay their respects to the town’s second-last WWII veteran.

The honour guard, comprised of Rural Fire Service, RSL and Probus members, stretched well beyond the pathway into the Uniting Church reflected the depth of respect.

People came from as far as Sydney, Geelong, Ballina, Foster, Canberra, Orange, Echuca, Maitland and Wagga for the funeral.

“Dad was a man who lived by an unspoken code of ethics,” daughter Annette in’t Hout said.

“These values weren’t necessarily spoken about but he certainly lived them out.”

Born in 1920 to Herbert and Alice Stacy, pioneer dairy farmer in the new settlement of Beelbangera, he was named after his father and grandfather before him.

As the eldest of eight boys and three girls, Roy took the mantle of leadership early on.

After leaving school at 16, he worked briefly with Griffith Producers and on a Nericon farm, then with CSIRO for four years. During this time he studied automotive and diesel engineering, and fitting and machining at the newly established technical college.

The classes in 1938 were originally held in two railway carriages that shuttled between Griffith, Leeton and Narrandera.

Mr Stacy enlisted with the RAAF in 1940 as a fitter armourer and volunteered for the bomb disposal unit. Daughter Ros Pragnell said he would tell her and her sister Annette stories of his service.

“He would tell us of the time a Beauford bomber crashed during the night at Richmond with over 76 kilos of live bombs on board,” Mrs Pragnell said.

“It was his duty to crawl under the aircraft and defuse the bombs. He was obviously successful in that job!”

Another of his famous RAAF stories included one with a flying fridge.

“In 1942, several American B17 Flying Fortresses landed at Richmond. The Americans weren’t impressed with warm beers on offer, so they loaded one of the planes with beer and flew them at high altitude until they were cold,” Mrs Pragnell said.

“53 years later in 1995, Dad and Mum met an 80 year old American who had been on the plane and remembered the beer episode.”

He spent 18 months with the occupation forces in Japan after WWII ended.

“He’s been running on nuclear energy ever since.”

He returned to CSIRO, but left to work on the family farm when his father died in 1948. Mr Stacy married Nancy Braby in 1950, and worked as a sharefarmer and farm manager until 1962 when they drew a farm block of their own in the Kooba area.

“The first half of his life was farming, and the second was in and with the town,” Mrs Pragnell said.

Roy and Nancy moved into Griffith in 1957, which began the second part, almost 50 years, of his life.​

He was heavily involved in several community organisations, including the Griffith branch of the Returned Soldiers League and the Rural Fire Service.

President of the Griffith RSL sub-branch Terry Walsh said Mr Stacy was an “extremely passionate member.”

“He was a tireless worker, and he is held in high regard with all the members. Always ready to put his hand up for anything, he was a wonderful member,” Mr Walsh said.

Amoung his numerous projects, he was part of the committees helping set up the War Memorial Museum, getting an honour role with at Memorial Park as well as representing the Griffith sub-branch on district, state and national levels.

“One of the stories is that a few years back our branch was going through tough times with membership – it was in dire straits, ready to fold. Only through the efforts of Roy and Jim McGann was the branch brought back to life.”

His passion for fighting fires started when, as a young boy, a steam engine set fire to his father’s hay stacks, and there was no equipment to put the fires out.

Mr Stacy was instrumental in founding the Kooba Bush Fire Brigade when he started farming at Kooba and never gave it up.​ He began his firefighting career in 1944, and was active on the front line four years ago before suffering from a heart-attack.

The RFS’ biography of Mr Stacy remembers his work as a member of the Griffith brigade, where he spent many hours over several years converting ex-army trucks into fire trucks, with one called “Roy’s Toy”. 

“He has volunteered to attend fires out of town, he still attended training on Monday evenings and helped with water supply for tree planting, and helps with the boat and car races,” the bio reads.

His earlier technical training proved to be invaluable when remodeling the trucks.

“It was more than fitting that his final escort was a fire truck,” Mrs Pragnell said.

In 2004 Roy was awarded Life Membership to the NSW Rural Fire Service.

Model citizen and lifetime community member, Mr Stacy was granted Griffith's highest honour as Freeman of the City February 21, 2015. Griffith Mayor John Dal Broi said he was “an exceptional community person.”

“He was always there ready to help, he put a tremendous amount of work through RFS … especially in the early days helping out when there wasn’t a lot of money, he worked tirelessly and was the first one on scene in many instances battling fires,” Cr Dal Broi said.

Some of his other achievements include a gold clasp for 70 years service to the NSW Rural Fire Service, a lifetime volunteer award from Griffith City Council and a Griffith Citizen of the Year award.

Mr Stacy was also rewarded for his dedication to the community with NSW Farmers’ Association’s prestigious Medal of Honour in 2013.

“But finally his tired body has said.. ‘enough’. Dad was mentally with us right up to the end. On Saturday afternoon, he was telling me which drippers to turn off, having asked me 24 hours before to turn them on,” Mrs Pragnell said.

“Dad gave much to the Griffith community, but in return he has earned your love and respect, as witnessed today.

“And what more could one ask for, than to be born in, work and live in and finally die in a community such as Griffith.”