RIP Graham Pribul 20/04/1944 – 27/08/2025

The club was very sorry to hear of the passing of Graham Pribul, peacefully at home, surrounded by his family. Graham had bravely and stoically battled a cancer diagnosis but nevertheless was still thinking of the club in his final days, ensuring the final handover as Club Treasurer to his successor Harold Wyber.

Having been brought up locally, Graham joined the club in 1979 on his return to the area after 10 years at Southampton AC. He represented the club over cross-country, road and on the track for 20 years until injury forced him to retire. By this time, he was already heavily involved in many other roles within the club.

Between 1983 and 1994, Graham was our cross-country Captain/Team Manager. His quiet but persuasive manner ensured excellent turn outs and resulted in our first ever Senior Metropolitan League title in 1989, followed by 3 more during his tenure. In 1994, Graham became our Treasurer - a vital role he held for 31 years, only stepping down at this year’s AGM. During this time, he helped the club become a Community Amateur Sports Club, which has meant we have been able to claim a significant uplift in income from donations through Gift Aid.

Alongside these roles, he has organised all our home X-C fixtures for 25+ years as well as promoting a midweek series of schools’ races (for 20 years) to scout new talent.

As a level 2 Field and level 3 Endurance official, Graham has supported all our club events, together with league, County, Area and National events across T&F, X-C and Road.

In a wider sporting context, Graham was a member, and then Vice-Chairman, of The Redbridge Sports Council for 10+ years in the early 2000’s, representing the interests of our club and the sport of athletics in general.

For his many contributions to the club, Graham was elected a Life Member in 1996 and served as our President from 2009-11.

We recently nominated Graham to receive an award for “Lifetime Services to Athletics and Running” at the forthcoming England Athletics Regional Volunteer Awards. Sadly, Graham will not be able to receive his award in person, but I was able to have it confirmed that Graham was a worthy winner of this accolade and was pleased to be able to let him know in recent days.

We will publish details of Graham’s funeral in due course when they are known.

We pass on our deepest sympathies to his family and friends.

David Hollingworth