In life, Luke Bennett loved nothing more than making his friends laugh.
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"He was the most mischievous bloke you ever would meet for all the right reasons," his friend, Craig White, said in Mr Bennett's eulogy at his funeral at the Bathurst Harness Racing Club on Saturday.
"His mind never stopped ticking away thinking about how he could make us all laugh and have fun. There was never a dull moment when you were around Luke; he just loved having a good time."
And Mr Bennett, also known as Nipper, Big Fella, Styles and Big Benno to his friends, always made sure they were having a great time.
"I don't think any of us here ever saw him leave a party because he was always the life of the party and the last to leave," Mr White said. "Luke was just an incredibly great bloke to be around."
A Group 10 rugby league premiership winning player and beloved Bathurst businessman, Mr Bennett died in a car accident on May 18 in Lismore.
"He was an incredibly great bloke, mate, father and friend to everyone," Mr White said.
"If you were a friend of Luke, your whole family were too. He was always having fun with our families and everyone's kids loved Luke.
"He made such an effort when people were around to make sure that his own and his friends' kids were involved in whatever was going on."
Mr Bennett grew up on College Road, where he lived with his parents, Jimmy and Rosemary, brother Dom and sisters Alicia and Meacarla.
"We would go out there fishing, shooting and camping. As we got a bit older and could go into the Black Stump Hotel, we decided to take up drinking," Mr White said.
'"This newfound hobby certainly shifted the bar.
"We spent endless years playing football together, where we made great friendships and greater memories. Our best mate Stal used to run our football careers.
"Our contracts with St Pat's each year were done by Stal generally on the back of a beer coaster.
"We left St Pat's in the early 90s and went and played for Blayney for two years. As the year went on, the training at Blayney was really working: at the start of the year we could only drink a stubby of beer on the way to training; by the end of it we could down a longneck."
Mr White also spoke of Mr Bennett's rugby league career at St Pat's under the late Dave Scott.
"Under Scotty's guidance, Luke's football game went to the next level, winning the comp in 2001," he said.
Off the field, Mr Bennett's proudest moments were the arrival of his three children.
When he was in his 20s, Mr Bennett married Sonja, and the couple had three children: daughters Morgan and Darcie and then son Taron.
Mr White said Mr Bennett was an incredible father to all his children.
"He would do whatever was needed to make sure that the kids had everything that they needed.
"He was incredibly proud of everything they did and, most recently, when they started to pursue their careers, with Morgan doing architectural design, Darcie studying to be a nurse and Taron practicing to be the next best thing to hit the NRL.
"He was so proud of them and loved them endlessly."
In later life, Mr Bennett met and married Angelique.
"Luke and Ang never left each other's side and Luke told me that he had found his soul mate," Mr White said.
Professionally, Mr Bennett was a successful businessman, having owned and operated several businesses in Bathurst.
"Luke was a hard worker. When he was 15, he started as a roustabout, he then went to Beaver Truss and Frames and then he became a plumber," Mr White told the service.
"He spent many years learning the plumbing trade under the guidance of Dave Evans, where they carried out all the plumbing work at Uncle Ben's in Bathurst for many years.
"Luke was extremely driven and motivated.
"He was a great businessman and started a number of successful businesses.
"Up until this week, he had four businesses running. When you called him, if you got his message bank, by the time his message went through all his businesses, you had generally forgotten what you called him for."
Mr White said Mr Bennett's death had left a gaping hole in the lives of all those who knew and loved him.
"You [Mr Bennett] have no idea of how loved and missed you are going to be," he said.
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