MOLLY and Vaughan Thorndike celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary today. The diamond couple were married on February 2 1957 in the Methodist Church in Wynberg, Cape Town.
They have three children – Cherylen, Russell and Dean – along with six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
They have lived in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, and settled in semi-retirement in East London some 30 years ago when they joined the Bonza Bay Rotary Club.
The happy couple have been actively involved in community work through Rotary and their church, with Vaughan serving as club president twice and Molly as Rotary Anns president twice.
The couple – who are both Paul Harris Fellows, the highest award for Rotarians – are still active members and attended the club’s 30th anniversary last Saturday.
They were actively involved in the Rotary Youth Exchange Programme, in which East London students are sent overseas in exchange for overseas students visiting South Africa.
In 1990, with the end of the apartheid era, they visited Norway, Sweden and Finland and successfully persuaded the Scandinavian countries to join the international programme.
Through their church, they have been involved with community projects for underprivileged families in the rural areas, retirement homes, and the McClelland Centre for intellectually impaired adults.
Vaughan is also chairman of the Eastern Cape Zone Donor Committee and a member of the national council.