The posthumous awarding of the Medal of the Order of Australia to late Liberal MLA Steve Doszpot is "bittersweet" for his widow Maureen Doszpot.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"I would have loved for him to be here because it would have meant such a great deal to him," Mrs Doszpot said.
Mr Doszpot died in November last year aged 69, just four weeks after he resigned from the ACT parliament and just 12 months after he had been diagnosed with liver cancer.
The award recognises his political career and contributions to local sport, business and charities. Mr Doszpot was president of Capital Football from 1995 to 2002 and president of the ACT Olympic Council from 2001 to 2005.
Mr Doszpot also started famous annual trivia nights that raised hundreds of thousands for various charities. Although he had announced at last year's event that it would be the final trivia night, the even has been continued in his honour and will take place this Friday night with funds raised to go to Cancer Council ACT.
"It will be lovely that we can put up Steve Doszpot OAM," Mrs Doszpot said.
While Mr Doszpot's many contributions to the people of Canberra are well-known, Mrs Doszpot said that since his death, she has truly realised just how much he gave back to the community.
"The thing that I'm finding now is that people are talking to me about things that he did to help them that I didn’t even know about," Mrs Doszpot said.
"A lot of what he did was private because he really wanted to help people."
The recognition meant a lot to the whole family, Mrs Doszpot said, and showed that her husband had achieved had fulfilled his own father's wishes.
"One of the things that drove Steve was that his father kept saying to him that he had to give back to Australia, because they were refugees from Hungary. And I think [the award] is a confirmation and an affirmation that he certainly did give back big time."
