Pittwater Life March 2019 Issue

Life Stories
Continued from page 31
and the first NSW Hyundai dealer.
For years after he opened, due to his
enthusiasm, Col Crawford Motors won
Time magazine’s National Dealer of the
Year award, and he was known for ages
after as ‘Mr Enthusiasm’.
He retired from the business in his
mid-50s, leaving his 26-year-old son
Stephen, at the helm. Stephen had done
the hard yards in the motor industry,
and was an expert valuer, before he
joined the family business. Today, the
company has around 250 employees,
among them Stephen’s three sons
– Harrison, manager of the Honda
division; Jake, who is in the service
department; and Will in the used car
section. And Col Crawford Motors’
premises are not only dotted all along
Pittwater Road in Brookvale, but now
also in Narrabeen.
Although retired, Col never stops
thinking about the business. He was
devastated when in 2018, Col Crawford
Motors unexpectedly lost the Nissan
franchise after 47 years.
“That was a big disappointment,” he
admits.
Both athletic and competitive, as well
as being a member of North Bondi and
Collaroy SLSCs, over his lifetime Col has
been a rower, squash player, yachtsman,
golfer; and he now plays bowls.
In addition, he’s raised over $3 million
for the Cerebral Palsy Alliance holding
auctions and golf days. It was Marelle
Thornton, President of the Cerebral
Palsy Alliance, who nominated him for
an OAM, which he received in 1997.
But one of the best days of his life, he
recounts, was running in the Olympic
Torch Relay on the opening day of the
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. He took
the torch halfway up Lantana Avenue
here on Collaroy Plateau and ran with it
along Veterans Parade.
“Stephen put on a skeleton staff, so a
lot of staff members were there, all the
family as well as extended family and
friends and neighbours. It was a very
memorable day.”
Next to his grand piano and the
photographs of him with his children,
their partners, and his grandchildren
holidaying in Honolulu recently, is the
replica Olympic torch he received.
In 2005, soon after their 50th wedding
anniversary, Pam died of cancer.
“If I could change anything,” he tells
me, “I wish I could have changed that.”
With no money to his name, but a great
deal of determination and hard yakka, Col
Crawford built a car empire. “Successful
people have a habit of doing those things
that unsuccessful people are just not
prepared to do,” he says. This self-made
man has certainly proved that to be true.
ABOVE: Running the Olympic
Torch relay in the lead-up to
the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
LEFT: The Sydney Grammar
student.
BELOW: Could this have been
the start of Col’s love of cars?
As an infant with grandmother
Mabel and mother Olga.
32 MARCH 2019
The Local Voice Since 1991