Don Rowlands rowed for the West End Rowing Club in Auckland, and won nine New Zealand national rowing titles in the single sculls, double sculls and eights between 1948 and 1957.
11 Facts About Don Rowlands
1.
2.
Don Rowlands was included in the New Zealand team for the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne but did not compete.
3.
Don Rowlands served as a New Zealand rowing selector between 1960 and 1977, and managed the national rowing squads at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth and at the 1997 World Rowing Championships.
4.
Don Rowlands was chairman of the organising committee for the 1978 World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro and patron of the 2010 World Rowing Championships at the same venue.
5.
Between 1974 and 1992, Don Rowlands was the New Zealand and Australian representative on the International Rowing Federation.
6.
Don Rowlands was the vice-patron and a life member of Rowing New Zealand.
7.
Don Rowlands rose to become a director and chief executive of the company from 1978 to 2001.
8.
Don Rowlands served as the chairman of Mainfreight from 1983, and became a director of HamiltonJet in 1990.
9.
Don Rowlands was named as a member of the New Zealand Olympic Order in 1991.
10.
Don Rowlands won the leadership award at the 2005 Halberg Awards.
11.
Don Rowlands was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.