"He was a person who wasn't idle," Max recalled.

Edward Vormister, born at Albury on January 9, 1918, died 38, 709 days later - on January 2, 2024.

His was a life well-lived.

From his early days at school at Cordeaux Dam, then Wollongong in 1924 to his apprenticeship at Email Westinghouse to his 40-plus year career at Wollongong then illawarra County Council as an electrical fitter/mechanic, Ed was a doer who contributed much to his community.

He maintained Wollongong's traffic lights and looked after the 33,000 volt sub-station between Helensburgh and the Victorian border before he retired as a substation superintendent.

Back in 1940 he literally married the girl next door, Doris Cox and together they grew their family to five with children Heather Max and Rosalyn.

When he died peacefully two days into 2024 Ed wasn't just a dad but a grandad and great, great grandad.

For son Max his abiding memory will be of his father's skills as a master repairer.

"I remember him as a person who could fix anything," Mr Vormister said.

"Back in the day, after the war, when you couldn't get parts, he would actually make the parts to fix whatever it was that needed fixing.

"He'd go to Dwyers (the local car yard) - get the aluminium pistons they'd discarded, melt them and make parts.

"He was quite remarkable."

So remarkable he thought he'd build a cinema projector from scratch during the Depression - and he indeed did.

And so fine was its construction it still works like a Swiss watch now.

Ed was, again in Max's understated words, "very proud of that projector".

It now sits in the National FIlm and Sound Archive of Australia, along with the screen and speaker which entertained people galore over the years - all from Ed's Gwynneville garage.

"It was way before TV and people made their own entertainment," Max explained.

Ed worked as a projectionist in theatres across the Illawarra - from the Regent Theatre to the Civic Theatre and then as the Saturday night projectionist at Balgownie's School of Arts Theatre.

The films needed to be on the train back to Sydney of a Monday, leaving Ed free to use his hand-made projector on Sunday night - all with cinema management's approval.

"He put planks across the garage for seats and if they missed out, people stand around the walls. Every Sunday it was packed," Max remembered.

The tradition continued for more than 10 years until the advent of TV in 1956.

Life was bigger than that backyard garage though as a handful of varied life memberships reveal.

Ed was awarded life memberships at Wollongong Bird Club, Wiseman Park Tennis Club, Wollongong City Bowling Club, the Illawarra Master Builders bowling club as well as the Agricultural Society.

Ed was an enthusiastic bowler and also deeply involved at Wiseman Park Bowling Club, where he was a founding member.

"He was also on the committee which raised millions of dollars to buy Wollongong Hospital's first linear accelerator to treat cancer patients," Max said.

Of course, it was a fleeting involvement, Ed then became a cancer carer.

His lifelong love of fixing things never subsided and Max recalled "people from everywhere would come to our place to get him to help".

"Even way into his 80s he was fixing things for people who wanted help. And for nothing."

Ed may have given up driving at aged 90 after putting his car through the back of his beloved garage, but he was still mowing his lawns as a 100-year-old.

"He told me it was like pushing a walker around that old people use," Max said.