Tim Du Val
Tim Du Val’s passion for rugby began in grade school even before being accepted at one of Australia’s great nurseries of high school footballing talent, St Ignatius College, in Sydney. He advanced his skills in the game at the University of New South Wales and then at Newcastle Wanderers RFC, where he was selected in the Newcastle representative team. In 1970, when he moved to New York City, his strong homing instinct led him to the Westchester Rugby Club, where he packed down with A.Jon Prusmack and many other friends for life. He also played flanker for NY Metropolitan Union Select Team and for the ERU against Australia in 1971.
Despite the game’s allure and its compelling call of post-game conviviality, Tim was able to shift his focus long enough to join his wife, Dagny, in the founding of Plant Specialists Inc, a garden design and build firm specializing in Rooftop Gardens. As this enterprise flourished, he and Dagny founded Du Val Enterprises, a real estate holding company. Following the successful sale of Plant Specialists, the Du Vals launched a new business, The Foundry, with their daughter Allison in 2001. The Foundry is an events facility in Long Island City for events and film shoots.
In recent years, Tim grasped the opportunities to encourage his former teammate’s development of USA Sevens; become a patron of the charity ‘ Play Rugby USA; ‘ and most recently, help in the founding of the Queens Rugby Football Club in New York. He is very grateful to be at the stage of being able to indulge in the more humorous side of life as he divides his time between his homes in Tuscany and New York. What he does remain serious about is his commitment to seeing rugby in the USA develop into a world-class contender while preserving the spirited camaraderie of the game.