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John Voss retired 19 years ago, but he hasn’t had a lot of spare time on his hands since then.

Not that he had much spare time while he was working.

Mr Voss was today awarded an Order of Australia Medal for service to the community of Wahgunyah, where he has given more than 60 years of service to the tennis and football communities.

‘‘It’s very humbling,’’ he said.

When the football competition started up following the end of World War II, Mr Voss got stuck in with the Wahgunyah Football Club.

He had already joined the Wahgunyah Tennis Club in 1945.

Mr Voss, 84, is a life member of both clubs, as well as Corowa and District Tennis Association, which amalgamated into the North East Regional Tennis Association last year, of which he is now treasurer.

As secretary and treasurer at the footy club and the Wahgunyah Racecourse and Recreation Reserve, Mr Voss is the man who makes sure the grounds are in good shape.

Since 1975 he has been a member of the John Foord Cemetery Trust and he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000.

While he jokes he still does so many jobs because no-one else will take them, Mr Voss said the people had kept him going.

‘‘You start doing it because you like it, then you meet so many good people, there are wonderful people around here,’’ he said.

‘‘The mothers of the kids at the tennis club are so nice and you think, ‘I can’t let them down’.’’

While he was working at Corowa Plumbing Supplies, his commitments kept him out late, though he says his wife, who died in 1995, was very tolerant.

‘‘I’d knock off work and go down and do whatever had to be done, then come home at 9pm and find tea in the oven,’’ he said.

‘‘You know what they say, behind every good man there’s a good woman.

‘‘She’d have been very proud.’’