By Margaret Maccoll
Ross Burgess really loved being Noosa’s Mary Ryan book store owner and Noosa really loved him.
His daughter Nicole Robertson remembered her dad who recently passed away as someone who always encouraged his three children to learn.
“There were always books and growing up he always read to us. He’d always encourage us to read. If we wanted to know something he’d tell us to look up the encyclopaedia and report back.
“He was definitely a lifelong learner and he tried to instil that in us.”
Many people may not know that before moving to Noosa Ross was a marketing director for the Far East. For 14 years he and wife Susan lived in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.
Nicole said when he retired he was going to do a Masters in Literature but when he couldn’t find a course he wanted to do he decided to find a book shop.
He always made sure there were plenty of his favourites in the shop including Dickens, a bit of crime and a bit of poetry. Richard Flanagan and Michael Rowbotham were among his favourite authors.
Nicole said her father always formed good relationships with reps and when an author was travelling to Brisbane to promote a book he’d see if they could travel a bit further to Noosa.
Over the decade Ross and Susan Burgess have owned the book store they have hosted numerous literary events welcoming prime ministers, broadcasters, Australian cricketers, chefs and emerging authors. Ross also had a long-running involvement with the Noosa Food and Wine Festival hosting many celebrity chefs with their cookbooks.
Nicole said over the past 18 months while she’d been helping out in the shop she was grateful for the number of customers who came in to inquiry about her father’s health and relay stories about how much they enjoyed talking to him and how he inspired them to read and introduced them to authors they’d never considered.
Nicole said the family wanted to thank the people of Noosa for their support of Ross and the bookshop.
“He really loved it,” she said. “He really enjoyed being involved in the community.”
With numbers restricted due to Covid-19 the family held a private memorial service for their beloved relative and friend last Tuesday.
