Celebration of Life for Gary Fumano – 4pm Thursday, July 11 at St. James Community Hall at 3214 West 10th Ave. in Vancouver
Lifetime Meraloma Club member Gary “Gus” Fumano died on June 23, at age 84
GARY WAYNE FUMANO
“GUS”
1939 – 2024
A celebration of Gary’s life will be held at 4pm Thursday, July 11 at St. James Community Hall at 3214 West 10th Ave. in Vancouver, which will be followed starting around 6:30pm that evening, as per the instructions set out in his will, with a wake at the Meraloma Clubhouse. People who knew Gus, from the Lomas or any other local Rugby Clubs, are invited to join and wear their Club colours.
As a teenager, Gus started playing rugby and football for the Meraloma Club, which changed the course of his life. He earned a football scholarship enabling him to attend Western Washington University, where he not only excelled as a linebacker for the football team, setting a college record with a remarkable 35 tackles in a single game, but also helped start a rugby program. Today, the tackle record still stands and the university’s rugby section is thriving.
After graduating college, he returned to Vancouver and played Men’s Rugby for the Meralomas, going on to represent B.C. and Canada against some of the world’s best teams. At the Meraloma Club in the 1970s, Gus met a beautiful Loma basketball and fast-pitch athlete named Teresa Gilraine, who became his beloved wife and the mother of his two children, Maria and Dan, who both went on to also play for the Lomas.
Gus was a past president of both the Meraloma Club and the Evergreens Over-40s Rugby Club, and served over the years as a coach, manager, volunteer, fan, and just about every other role around the Meraloma Club.
Gus’s contributions to the sport earned him a spot in the B.C. Rugby Hall of Fame. His induction was announced in June 2024, barely a day before he died. B.C. Rugby’s announcement last month about Gus’s induction into the Hall of Fame said that his “accomplishments in Rugby as a player and administrator at Club, Provincial, and National levels warrant his induction into the B.C. Rugby Hall of Fame. Fumano is a four-time Rounsefell Cup winner with the Meraloma Rugby Club, and represented his province from 1966-1969. He played on the B.C. side that defeated the British & Irish Lions in 1966. Gary has served as a Rugby administrator for over 30 years and managed several successful B.C. Representative teams throughout the 1970s. He is a past President of Meraloma Rugby Club and was awarded the Club’s highest award, the R.D. Hayes Award, in 1974.”
In lieu of flowers, the Fumano family asks people to consider donating to a charity that serves the poor, contributing to the Meraloma Rugby Endowment Fund, or volunteering in your community.