The tragic death of Damian Thurgood aged just 44yrs old, on the 4th May has left his family and friends devastated and heartbroken.
HE WAS THE ELDEST CHILD of Gordon and Annette Thurgood, and big brother to Natalie and Philip. The family came to live in Arcadia in 1980.
Damian was born at Auburn Hospital, starting his life with only one third of his blood. He overcame this to become a very active child.
Damian soon made friends at Arcadia Primary School and the Arcadia Uniting Church Sunday School. In those early years, he learnt to play the Violin and Tap danced. He joined the Boy Scouts, enjoying this very much. Growing up he was always active, playing sports, games, riding motorbikes, go karts and tormenting Natalie and Philip.
He attended Galston High School, where he met and started dating Jennifer Turnidge at the age of 16. He was a very keen sportsman, playing cricket and rugby league, continuing until 2004 so that he could play senior football with Philip, where they won the grand final together. Later he took up cycling where he enjoyed spending time with his mates.
After leaving school, he started an apprenticeship in fitting and turning at Alcan Aluminium, Granville. On completion of his apprenticeship he went to England for 3 months with a friend. On his return home he started to work with his father and resumed his studies in Electrical and Refrigeration so that he was qualified and could begin his own business. This was started in 1999 and known as Arctic Air Conditioning. He was a great tradesman, a natural.
Damian married Jennifer at Galston Uniting Church in October 1999, and they were later blessed with three sons, Zac 14 Kolby 12 and Logan 8.
Damian and Jennifer would have celebrated their 20 year wedding Anniversary in October. They were fortunate to have the opportunity to travel together to some amazing places and create many wonderful memories during the years in business. The boys and family meant everything to Damian who was such a wonderful, fun loving dad. Damian coached the boys Touch footy and Oz tag teams and was loved by all the boys’ friends too. Damian enjoyed taking the boys camping and playing lots of sports with them.
Damian kept in close contact with all his high school mates and mates from sporting days, never losing contact, just collecting more mates as he went along. Damian was a renowned prankster who loved a laugh and a good time and was always the life of the party.
Everything simply became too much and that Saturday night in May he did not come home from the business warehouse. On 17th May there was a very large funeral with well over 500 people at Galston Uniting Church. It was a great tribute to Damian and the outpouring of love for this exceptional young man was just enormous.
