It was with great sadness that the Old Cranbrookian community learned that Rex Hinchliffe (1974-1979) had lost his short battle with cancer on 30 April 2021. Philip Kong (OC 1979) remembers Rex, one of the most gifted all-round athletes at Cranbrook during the late 70s.

Rex received his Colours in tennis, athletics, soccer and cricket. In his final year he was a prefect as well as the captain of cricket and soccer.

After leaving School, he spent a year in South Korea as an exchange student. It was a year of political turmoil in Korea marked by a lot of student strikes and riots, so Rex spent that time improving his tennis, working as an English-speaking DJ and learning to speak Korean.

After his Korean adventure, he completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of NSW. During his time at university he met Lene, who was in Australia from Norway as an exchange student. Not long after, Rex decided to move to Norway to be with Lene. He found work at an international airline as an accountant in Oslo and they got married. When their first child was born, Rex became a stay-at-home dad while Lene pursued her career in medicine. Lene was posted to a local hospital in a very remote country town near the Arctic Circle. Rex thoroughly enjoyed the experience before the family settled in Lillehammer in central Norway, about three hours north of Oslo.

He joined Sealed Air which is an American company that manufactures plastic packaging for food, pharmaceuticals, electronics and most famously the ‘bubble wrap’. He had a very successful career there, performing managerial roles in finance. He was the managing director of their Norway operations for a period, the HR director for Scandinavia and even served as their production plant manager.

While his family grew and settled in Lillehammer, Rex got stuck into his passion for sport. For many years he was the local tennis champion and when his son, Aleksander, was old enough to partner him in doubles, the father and son pairing took all silverware on offer around the local district. Rex also got serious with his middle and long distance running. The Norwegian winters are brutal, so he used to train in the local under cover parking station. He regularly represented his local athletics club at national meets and in 2002 he ran a sub two minute 800 metres as a 40-year-old, making him officially the 14th fastest in the world for that age group. He also represented Norway in meets across Europe in various ‘veterans-masters’ categories.  He was still running until the illness caught up with him a few months ago. But his latest ‘project’ was mentoring and coaching young runners.

Rex was completely devoted to his family and frequently travelled to Australia to enjoy extended Hinchliffe family vacations on the beach in Kiama watched over by the grandparents. He will be deeply missed by his family and loved ones.

The following article was written by Rex Hinchliffe – a visitor to Shellharbour parkrun (who finished in fourth place) from Lillehammer in Norway (originally from Kiama):

As a veteran runner with decades of experience of middle and long-distance races on and off the track, it may be somewhat surprising that it was not until late 2019 that the parkrun movement caught my attention. I had at times heard various references to park runs, but it was not until reading Ian Mortimer’s “Why Running Matters” that my interest was aroused. After all, why would a relatively serious runner with years of competitive experience bother with a free, social event which although timed would undoubtedly lack a competitive edge? How wrong assumptions can be! Upon finally trying my first parkrun in Shellharbour, Australia in November 2019, it was like rediscovering the thrill of running again, and of the enjoyment of participation. A door was opened to a friendly house where those within were genuinely glad to see and welcome you. 30 members of that friendly community were volunteers that day, dedicated to welcoming me, and each of the 321 participants, who had flocked that day to the scenic course in Killalea State Park. Well, scenic hardly does the location justice – breathtaking is more appropriate! Yet the beauty of the course is deceiving, as it is rated one of the most difficult of 379 parkrun courses in Australia. If anything, the difficulty of the course serves to strengthen the bonds between the runners – a mutual respect for everyone struggling against the undulating terrain, against the soft sand when crossing the beach, the long sapping rises and the final kilometre which, although flat, seems to go on and on and on! A respect intensified by the fact that the runners are courteous without exception, with smiles readily at hand. And did I say non-competitive? With no pressure on performance? This was a pure demonstration that competitiveness comes from within! Having started with relatively modest ambitions, the result could be viewed in many ways. A top-ten overall placing (9th), an aged-grading placing to be proud of (3rd), but a finishing time (21:06) which surely could be improved on! Therein lies the key to competitiveness – the almost immediate planning of how to do better next time. The unquestioned obviousness that I will return at the first opportunity to see what level of performance I can push to. There is also a deep sense of enlightenment when I realize that this was actually the 285th parkrun at Shellharbour alone. My pleasure in participating is a tiny fraction of the goodwill created weekly around the globe. With over 1600 locations worldwide, I was just one of over 277,000 park runners who were assisted by nearly 30,000 volunteers! The magnitude of the movement is overwhelming. Importantly, it inspires me to be a volunteer at a future parkrun as soon as possible, in gratitude for the welcome I received as an unknown visitor – and to reciprocate to new park runners who are just as tentative and curious as I was.

Rex Hinchliffe, 2020