Club President

The President of Oakdale GC is Dr George Brownlie.

He has been member of Oakdale for 45 years and serving committee member for over 22 years which included nine years as House Chairman.

George was elected Captain of the club in 1986 and an honorary member in 2006. His best handicap over those years was a single figure eight but George now admits to struggling off 19.

Born in Scotland, George’s early education was conventional though somewhat ‘chequered’ in his early teenage years during the war. He was a member of the local army cadet force for 8 years before being called up for 2 years national service stationed mainly in Tripoli, North Africa.

Thereafter he entered the Royal College of Science and Technology, now Strathclyde University, studying Industrial Chemistry for 4 years. Sometime later George joined ICI and followed a career in production and technical development.

Subsequently and with no HR experience, George was asked by ICI to set up and manage an in-house team of specialist advisers for those fellow colleagues who were unfortunate to be offered redundancy. This was without doubt the role which gave him the greatest job satisfaction of his career. Indeed upon leaving ICI after 33 years loyal service, he continued in this special field for another 8 years.

George recalls his proudest period at Oakdale was when he and two fellow members were asked to radically overhaul and reduce the many subscription fee structures within the club. The acceptance of their recommendations, along with the support of ever changing committees, in general, led to the equality of the sexes in terms of category fees, voting rights and playing conditions.

George sees the Presidents function as upholding the strongly democratic tradition of the club, protecting the interests of Oakdale members,  the link between the past and the ever changing commercial requirements of the future and to encourage the forward looking ideas of the committee.