David Reid, who died on Friday, aged 84, once jokingly said if you blinked you would have missed his time as an MP.
Though he spent a total of less than two years in two houses of parliament as a Country Party member, WA's Legislative Assembly and the Senate, his brief periods as an MP were due to circumstances beyond his control.
A redistribution and then a double dissolution.
But he was able to achieve something that was unique. He represented all three tiers of government, as he later spent time on two councils, Bridgetown-Greenbushes, where he became shire president and Busselton.
"Being a member of three levels of government in Australia is quite a rare thing," he told the Busselton Oral History Group last year.
He believed being awarded an OAM for his services to conservation and the environment was his biggest achievement as it was an indication of his contribution to the community.
He served on more than 30 committees in his public life, which covered a diverse range of subjects. Among them were chair of the Busselton Water Board and chair of the Busselton Settlement Art project, which he initiated.
Though he was a farmer in Bridgetown, David and his wife Jacynth had a long connection with Busselton, holidaying there regularly before moving permanently to the town and building a home that overlooked the historic Busselton Jetty.
Jacynth recalled that when they came on holidays they brought their pet cats and dogs, two sheep to eat the grass as well as their chooks so they could have fresh farm eggs for breakfast.
Born in Bridgetown on the 10th May, 1933 and where he farmed after attending the Denmark Agriculture College, David was a reluctant politician.
He was asked to run for the Lower House seat of Blackwood, which was dissolved after a boundary redistribution less than two years into his term and was later elected to fill a casual vacancy in the Senate, which lasted only a few months following a double dissolution in the lead up to arguably Australia's most controversial political event, the dismissal of the Whitlam Government by the Governor General.
He later turned his attention to local government and was a member of the Busselton Council during its transition from a shire to a city.
In an interview with the oral history group said he had had an amazing life in some respects. While it had not been very successful in longevity, in the context of experience it was massive.
When I spoke to him only hours before he passed away, in his usual modest way, he said he did not feel he had achieved anything special in his life.
"I was just an ordinary person," he said.
His list of community contributions says something different.