Cyril Hood celebrated his 90th birthday with wife of 61 years, Shirley, and daughter, Susan, at his home on September 30.

He also celebrated his 90th birthday at the Lakes Entrance RSL, in the company of a small group of family members – wife, Shirley, daughters, Julie and Susan, Julie’s husband, Rick Jones, niece and nephew, Joan Hood and Len Hood, second cousin, Cheryl Bosch, and her husband, Simon Bosch.

Unable to attend, were sons, Grant and Craig Hood, and grandsons, Evan Jones and Callum Jones.

Cyril Percival Hood, a retired local builder was born in Elmore, Victoria, on September 30, 1928.

He married Shirley Isabel Hedges at Saint Luke’s Uniting Church Morwell in 1957, followed by a honeymoon on the Gold Coast.

They have four children, Grant Robert, Julie Isabel, Susan Gaye and Craig William Hood, along with two grandchildren, Evan Anthony Roy Jones, a musician, and Callum Richard Travers Jones, a physicist at Michigan University in the United States of America.

His family consisted of father Robert Hood (dec) a retired railway worker, born in Deniliquin, New South Wales, who married Sarah Hood (nee Marshall, dec).

They had five children in Dorethy Esther Glover Finlay (nee Hood, dec), Vera Elizabeth Thomson (nee Hood, dec), Thomas Walter Hood (dec) and Colin Francis Hood (dec).

The Hood family have a nostalgic and practical connection with Lakes Entrance and surrounding area.

Robert Hood and has family moved from Flemington to live in Nowa Nowa, working for the railways between Nowa Nowa, Orbost and Bairnsdale in the early 1930s where Bob was a Victorian Railways Ganger.

The family enjoyed trips on the steamer SS Gippslander, travelling between Lakes Entrance and the Port of Bairnsdale.

Vera, Cyril’s sister, her husband, Arthur, and mother, Sarah, ran the Theatre Café in Lakes Entrance from 1935 to 1937 and their meals were in great demand.

Cyril grew up playing hillbilly guitar and ukulele with his brothers, possessing a nice singing voice.

Eldest brother Tom Hood played steel guitar as well as acoustic. Cyril still plays guitar and ukulele on the rare occasion.

As a child, Cyril loved his football and more than anything else he enjoyed having a kick of his football, so it is fitting that he celebrated his birthday on grand final weekend. He played for Morwell Church as a teenager.

Cyril, who is a more hands on person became bored with school and books and at 14 wanted to move out into the world. Luckily, a job came his way, as his mother told him that he would have to continue at school if he couldn’t find work.

In 1942, a local builder gave Cyril a carpentry position where he learnt his trade at the Lamode Factory in Morwell. He and his brothers all tried their hands at carpentry, with Cyril continuing for 63 years as a builder, working for himself, before semi retiring at age 76.

In the early 1950s Cyril and his brother in-law, Arthur Thomson, husband of Cyril’s sister, Vera, worked together, travelling all over Victoria assembling pre fabricated homes for Victorian Railways.

They did well for some years, before deciding to become co-owner of a dairy farm at Yinnar that he and his married brothers were interested in.

There were plenty of adventures while on the farm, some good, some not so good. Early in their marriage, in the 1960s, Cyril and Shirley lived in Elgin street, Morwell.

Cyril always the builder at heart, decided to build himself a boat. The design came out of an encyclopedia, from it, he build a blue and white 18 foot cabin cruiser, made of marine ply, quiet a beautiful boat in its day.

In 1966, Cyril and Shirley left Morwell for the paradise of Lake Tyers Beach, building a two-storey home overlooking the ocean on Tyers Court Road.

There was plenty of work at the time as Cyril enjoyed seven years of fishing and boating. Shirley became involved with swimming and the local community.

When work ran out in 1972, it was back to Morwell for 15 years, finally leaving Morwell in 1988 for Lakes Entrance once more.

Luckily, there was a house ready to move into. After 20 years, living on a double block seemed like a lot of work and Cyril decided to move house again. In 2010, at the age of 82, Cyril decided to pick up the hammer once more and build his present family home in Lakes Entrance, taking four years to build.

Family members pitched in with construction and final touches such as painting.

PICTURED: Cyril Hood celebrated his 90th birthday, which was on September 30, at the Lakes Entrance RSL last Saturday.