Ronald Leslie (Ron) Sheppard, who has died aged 84, was well known throughout the district as a Lyneham garage proprietor and was a valued member of Wootton Bassett & District Rotary Club and the local business community.

He was a founder member of the club, in June 1975, and was its president in 1985–86.

Mr Sheppard was always ready to volunteer help, and was noted for his happy, outgoing nature and enormous smile.

He was remembered fondly by a large congregation at his funeral in Lyneham parish church.

The Rev Canon Thomas Woodhouse and the Rev Richard Selby-Boothroyd officiated, and the service included warm tributes from Mr Sheppard’s grandson and granddaughter.

Mr Sheppard spent his early years in Dorset, where he went to school in Weymouth and worked in his parents’ garage business in Portland Road. He was stationed at RAF Lyneham during National Service but, having omitted to disclose his skills as a mechanic, served as a steward.

During that time at Lyneham he met Betty, who was to become his wife, and after returning to Weymouth to work he frequently made the long, slow journey to visit her at the weekend. “Her parents would leave them to babysit her siblings,” said Canon Woodhouse.

Mr and Mrs Sheppard were married at Lyneham church in 1954, and lived briefly in Weymouth before moving to Wiltshire; their only daughter, Sandra, recalls a childhood full of wonder and joy. Mr Sheppard worked at a Triumph dealership in Swindon and then in Purton before becoming a partner in the Lyneham garage that he subsequently ran. He had a lifelong interest in motoring, was especially interested in vintage cars.

He was a prime mover in Wootton Bassett Chamber of Trade’s initial promotion of town centre Christmas lighting .

Memorial donations, for the British Heart Foundation, may be sent c/o Hillier Funeral Service, 170 Victoria Road, Swindon SN1 3DF.