WHILE he might say he doesn’t count birthdays anymore, Tamworth’s Bill Forrester celebrates a special milestone on Thursday.
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The local man has turned 90 years old – and one of his secrets to staying switched on and active is, literally, up in the air.
Mr Forrester became a pilot more than six decades ago and can still be seen on most weekends cruising the Tamworth skies.
A jack of all trades, he was born in Port Kembla and later in life moved to Barraba.
There, he bought and worked at two of the local pubs before taking over a bus company, which looked after school runs and shuttling workers to and from the asbestos mine.
He retired before moving to Tamworth about 23 years ago, and has since been an active member of the community and even received a NSW Carers Award last year.
Beside him for the past 67 years has been his loving wife Myra, and together Mr and Mrs Forrester share three children – Robert, Trevor and Ada – along with eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, who will join extended family and friends in birthday festivities at Hallsville this weekend.
“I don’t count them any more, they’re starting to add up,” Mr Forrester said of his birthday.
“My dear wife has decided to give me a 90th birthday party and she’s just about invited every relation I’ve got from around the countryside.”
Mr Forrester says the years are certainly adding up but he is still determined to stay up in the air for as long as he can.
“It’s a passion, I suppose you’d call it that. We still fly and we are out at the airport every Saturday,” he said.
“I enjoy flying and I’ll still be flying until my medical fails me.
“At the moment, I’m passing with no problems.”
In his lifetime, Mr Forrester has owned two planes, one of them a twin engine, which he bought “in pieces” and rebuilt with the help of a local engineer.
Mrs Forrester admits she thought the plane was a “load of junk” until she saw the end result.
As Mr Forrester prepared this week to celebrate his special milestone among family and friends, Mrs Forrester paid tribute to her husband, who she described as a modest man.
“I think he’s just wonderful – very clever and a very kind and compassionate man,” she said.
