William Ronald O.A.M. OLY.
Old Andrean 1967
Inducted into the SACS Hall of Honour 2019
William Ronald joined St Andrew's Cathedral School in Year 3 and, inspired by the swordplay he had seen on the popular 1950's television show Zorro, he signed up to learn fencing at SACS under the legendary coach and film fight choreographer Tex Clarke. He found the sport fun, interesting and very addictive.
While he was a student, he became the New South Wales and the Australian Junior Foil Champion in 1964, 1965 and 1966. He won the New South Wales Open Foil and Open Epee Championships on three occasions and became the Australian Open Foil Champion in 1968 and the Australian Open Epee Champion in 1969.
William was a member of the Australian National Foil Team and the Australian National Epee Team and was selected to represent Australia at the Olympic Games, Mexico in 1968 competing in three events. He also competed in the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1970 in two events and won a silver medal in the Foil Teams event.
He went on to serve Australian Fencing both nationally and internationally in administrative, management and coaching roles.
He managed the Australian Olympic Fencing Team for the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976, the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 and the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988.
He served as the Australian Fencing Delegate to the Australian Olympic Committee from 1980 until 2000. In the year 2000, Bill managed the Fencing competition for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
More recently he was Fencing coach for the Australian Olympic Team, Modern Pentathlon competitors at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Since 2013 he has been Fencing coach at SACS and a guest lecturer in Australia and overseas in the areas of sport management, Olympic studies and international sports federations.
He was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2001, the NSW Olympic Council Award of Merit in 2013 and the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1993.
November 2019
