![Vincent 'Dan' Dougherty and friend Kevin McGuire. Picture supplied Vincent 'Dan' Dougherty and friend Kevin McGuire. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/69bb8dbd-e087-458e-a88a-f528b692eb57.png/r0_0_3444_1936_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Vincent 'Dan' Dougherty was a week away from his 14th birthday when World War II ended.
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Decades later, he could still remember the announcement coming through on the morning of September 2, 1945, as he sat in class at De La Salle Brothers School.
"We were all taken out into the school yard and the radio was put over a loud speaker so everyone could hear the announcement," he said.
"We were told we could go home and I remember everyone going onto Summer Street where there were lots of cars, bikes and trucks with people cheering and yelling to celebrate the end of the war. It was a great day to remember."
Born on September 8, 1931, Mr Dougherty grew up on a farm called 'Boomey' which was located five miles outside of Molong.
Three years later his family moved to Orange and although there were stints in Queensland and Manildra along the way, Mr Dougherty's heart was always drawn back to the Colour City.
From supplying 1000 tonnes of wood per year to Bloomfield Hospital, to a promising boxing career, his impact on the town can still be felt today.
Mr Dougherty died on May 18 at the age of 91 due to natural causes.
Grandson Chris Condon paid tribute to the man who taught him that a few slices of toast with Vegemite "was the breakfast of champions."
"There was always fish to catch and family to see. After a few hours driving, grandad always made sure we stopped to take a 'piddle and have a 'cuppa tea' and some biscuits," he said.
"I remember spending my Christmas holidays in Orange and everyday, a new friend or family member would come to visit.
"A reflection of character, family and the person grandad was, to have so many loved ones in his life."
It was during his time on the Boomey farm that Mr Dougherty earned the nickname 'Dan', as daughter Louise Dougherty noted in a life-story compilation she finished just prior to her father's death.
"It was here that the kids often played around the stables pretending to be the Ned Kelly gang," she wrote.
"So it was the stable hands that nicknamed Vincent 'Dan', his brother James 'Ned' and their sister Joan was 'Kate'."
![Vincent 'Dan' Dougherty loved telling a story and always had time for family. Picture supplied Vincent 'Dan' Dougherty loved telling a story and always had time for family. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YN4FA67iw2pXwXjwm2vmnJ/ea3af6a3-cd89-46c5-882d-e164dd67cb37.jpg/r0_631_1512_2016_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Mr Dougherty would spend his mornings before school milking the family cows, before delivering milk in a billy cart to customers nearby their Dalton Street home.
He joined the Orange CYMS boxing team when he was 15 and was a quick learner under Harry McDonald.
"He fought in the ring in Western area tournaments and was undefeated for two years," Ms Dougherty added.
"That was until he was finally beaten by his mate Pat Ford who eventually rose to be the Empire Champion."
Mr Dougherty and his first wife Barbara (nee Edwards) moved to Queensland where he worked on and off cattle stations from 1947 to 1958.
Due to the drought up north, they returned to the Central West where he worked on a farm in Manildra for nearly three years, before he took a job at the Email factory in Orange.
It was around this time the couple divorced, but Mr Dougherty would re-marry on March 9, 1964 to Noelene Wilson. They remained married for 52 years before her death in 2016.
As well as listening to Slim Dusty and "a few other favourites", Mr Dougherty spent his time reading books, looking through photo albums, reading his wife's travel journals and "always had a lot of fun" retracting the steps of many of the the trips he had taken over the years.
His daughter added that he always loved visits from family and friends and "never missed an opportunity to tell a story or two."
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