Farewell to a Living Choice legend
In April 1992, at age 30, John Elliott secured a job through his rugby league connections with the Construction department at Central Coast Retirement, the forerunner of Living Choice. Thirty years and seven months later, he hung up his construction boots and relinquished his position as NSW Construction Manager. Fittingly, there was a huge turnout of staff colleagues and suppliers for his retirement party.
John is the longest serving employee with Living Choice and was there when the first resident moved into Living Choice Broadwater Court. He was responsible for the construction of all five stages at Broadwater Court, the Deepwater Court village, the Alloura Waters main village and the waterfront apartments.
John also supervised the development of Living Choice Glenhaven and several stages at Leisure Lea Gardens. In 2003, he was called to assist the Queensland Construction team when the first stages of Living Choice Twin Waters and Kawana Island were nearing completion.
In the early days, John even had to take his turn to be the overnight on-call carer at Broadwater Court. He also assisted at Open Days and was a reluctant participant in marketing photo shoots.
Both Living Choice Directors, Graham Hobbs and Ian Tregoning, travelled to the Central Coast to attend John’s farewell on 2nd November. In his touching tribute, Graham outlined John’s stellar rugby league career, from playing 1st Grade with Erina to playing 1st Grade with the Canberra Raiders with his brothers, Peter and Paul. At his first training session with the Raiders, he not surprisingly acquired the nickname “Mary”, after struggling with the effects of a bad hangover!
Graham also revealed that John has a passion for horse racing and has a share in the ownership of a horse that hasn’t won a race yet. He loves golf and is known for practising his golf swing whilst talking to someone in his office. He also loves horse riding, camping and caravanning – all activities that he is looking forward to enjoying in his retirement.
John is a proud family man. He and his wife, Jo, have four sons - Toby, Jake, Max and Brock – all of whom are very high achievers in several different sporting codes. Jo and three of his sons attended the emotional farewell and are looking forward to spending more time with him.
Farewell, John – you are, and always will be, a legend.
