So the late tennis administrator will know when he joins the ACT Sport Hall of Fame as an associate member on November 29.

"If only he was still here, I'm sure he is up there on the blue tennis court in the sky, so he'll know," Sue Willis said.

"My brother and I always say we were brought up in sandpits, at the tennis court and the back of a car.

"There was always tennis meetings in the house, lots of tennis talk, and plenty of laughter. It was the friendships they made which still remain today through the family which are so valued."

So what was everyone laughing about during those meetings around the Willis family dinner table?

Willis laughs "we don't have time to tell all the stories", but her father was known around town as "Mr Tennis".

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He played until he was 90 before he died in September last year aged 94, having played tennis for some 50 years.

It was his would-be wife Joan that introduced him to the game after he returned home to Yass after serving in World War II.

Willis was last year awarded the Legion of Honour medal having served in 31 missions as a mid-upper gunner who trained for six weeks as a 19-year-old before taking to the sky over France and Germany in a Lancaster bomber.

"When he returned to Yass, my mother was friends with one of his sisters and invited him for a game of tennis," Willis said.

"He was always a footballer and a cricketer, so tennis was new to him. But my mother said he was never the same after that, tennis was what he wanted to play and it became his passion.

"They married in 1946 and moved to Canberra, and to build friendships they became involved in Turner Tennis Club.

"Dad became involved in administration, then as president, and he became actively involved in ACT [Lawn Tennis Association] as secretary and then as president.

"He loved getting on his whites and going to tennis. When people remember dad's contribution, it was the growth of the sport he would be most proud of.

"He wanted to involve more and more people, because he could see what a great sport it was. As we know, it is a game for life."