1950 - 2015
Loyal workshop volunteer and life member
Ray Barry has been an integral part of Bicycle Network events and our wider events and volunteer family for more than 30 years.
As one of our longest serving and most dedicated volunteers and team leaders, Ray was one of our original life members and was recognised again for his work in 2013.
Outgoing, warm and always up for a chat, Ray, with his trademark hat, looked after our workshop and the team of 10–12 volunteers who worked there.
Bicycle Network’s Chief Operating Officer, Darren Allen, shares his favourite memories of Ray:
“Let me tell you how things are done ‘round here at the workshop”
These were the first and very lasting words Ray said to me four years ago. The statement was well practiced. I was probably the twentieth young up-start employed by Bicycle Network to manage the RACV Great Victorian Bike Ride and Ray had been down this path many times before.
“Look after the vollies, don’t be stupid and try to change everything, and tell me before you do anything at the workshop.”
Ray was always reliably clear, direct and genuine. Plus, he was right and his advice definitely saved me from embarrassing myself. I knew everything I needed to know in those first two sentences.
Ray had been the chief at the workshop from his first day out there and not much got passed him. He could solve any problem, fix any issue, source any part – and if he couldn’t, he knew someone who could.
His wealth of knowledge, experience, passion and strong relationships with our vollies and contractors, especially when it came to the RACV Great Victorian Bike Ride, was remarkable.
He knew the boundaries and always found ways to play by his own rules.
He was loud but gentle, kind yet brutally honest, approachable but imposing, stern but always flexible.
Ray was this really odd combination of mixed qualities – I’d best describe him as a lovable rogue.
We argued over more things than I care to remember, but we never had harsh words just many differences of opinion. It all came down to his passion and love for the place.
Ray is figurehead of all volunteers an an integral part of the Bicycle Network machine. He is second-to-none in his commitment and genuine belief in volunteering your time to something that matters.
He would be the most recognisable faces on any of our rides, loved by all and always up for a chat.
We’ll miss him a lot.
Ray sadly passed away in early December 2015 after a prolonged battle with cancer. He will be greatly missed by everyone at Bicycle Network.
Radio interview with Ray Barry, 2010 – “It wouldn’t work without people like Ray”