Getting to Know Our Members

THE THINKER: Spends an extraordinary amount of time thinking about very little. Usually seen at the head in a motionless pose like the famous Rodin statue. Not good at multi-tasking and to-do lists!

Getting to Know Our Members

For a bloke who has never played cricket, Egon Mikolajczyk is one hell of an all-rounder.

But despite having never wielded the willow, there are not too many things that Egon has not attempted. In fact, it wouldn’t be pushing the truth too far to refer to Egon as a polymath, from the Greek word which describes someone as “a person of wide-ranging skills or great versatility and whose knowledge spans a significant number of subjects”.

His list of achievements and interests is expansive but they have all come from very difficult beginnings. As Egon says, “I was made in Germany but born in Katanning to Polish/German parents who immigrated to Australia after World War II with very few possessions.” Egon’s father was a member of the Polish Army but after the invasion spent time as a German prisoner of war. “They came here with nothing,” Egon said of his parents, who went on to settle in Albany where Egon did his primary and secondary schooling.

He must have been a very attentive pupil because, at the age of 16, he went to UWA where he gained a Bachelor of Science (maths) Degree and a Post Graduate Diploma of Computing.

Then began a diverse range of employment opportunities which

began with a one-year stint at Westrail, followed by six years as a Computer Programmer at TABWA. Obviously savvy in the computer world, Egon, moved to SECWA in 1979 and worked as a Computer Operations Manager until 1991.

Egon then took a redundancy package and studied at Edith Cowan University for a Graduate Diploma of Education which enabled him to teach maths and computing in private and public secondary schools for 15 years until 2008. Then came a stint as an Insulation Sales Consultant during the Federal Government’s Pink Batts program. With time ticking away, Egon spent the last five years of his working life driving Transperth buses until he retired in 2016.

His parents had never encouraged Egon to play sport in his youth, particularly contact sport. As a result, he started playing squash as a teenager until his first cartilage tear in 1983. He also played basketball from the age of 21 for 14 years but gave up on that too after more cartilage and cruciate ligament tears

In the meantime, in his only marriage, Egon became the father of three children (a civil engineer, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist) and has seven grandchildren pictured below in this lovely photograph.

When you look at what else Egon has done in his life, he fits the bill perfectly as someone born under the zodiac sign of Taurus. Those people are described as smart, ambitious, trustworthy, stoic, enthusiastic, determined and materialistic.

He began bowling with Osborne Park in 2006, switched to Sorrento in 2017 because he wanted to be with a more progressive club, and has played pennants for the last 15 years. His most memorable achievements on the bowling green have been runner up in 2nd division and State Pairs on two occasions and getting his name on the Sorrento Honour Board along with John Abercrombie and Ray Stapledon in club triples in 2019

But wait –there’s more. Egon’s other interests are vast and varied. He has, since 1971, been interested in computers and programming. He also plays the piano accordion and took up Frisbee golf this year. And with Annette (“my gorgeous dance partner and very special friend”) Egon is into ballroom dancing, rock n roll, line dancing and has attended country music festivals such as Coolyrocks in Coolangatta. Egon has also been a member of the Joondalup Bridge Club since 2014 and says he has enjoyed gardening all his life. Fishing and men-only long weekends away are also on Egon’s list as was caravanning between 1978-2010.

With such a list of achievements it’s simply impossible not to describe Egon as an all-rounder. So, to get back into cricketing terminology, what we can say is that, during a great innings of life, he is currently 69 not out. – Jim Woodward

PS: Egon tells us that he is now known as “Kneegon” as both his old knees are gone for ever and he now has two brand new knees!