Don Rowlands won the Red Coat for St Georges in the NZ Championship Single and in the Championship Double with Jack Stevenson in 1957.
Don and Jack rowed out of West End and Auckland Rowing Club respectively. They wished to compete together in the double so they chose to row out of St George’s Rowing Club in 1957. Both men continued to support St George’s activities even when they moved back to their original Clubs.
Don Rowlands won nine national titles and was the Empire Games single sculls champion in 1954 after being a member of the silver medallist eight at the games in Auckland four years before.
He won the prestigious Interprovincial Eights Championship for Auckland, in four seat of an eight at Wellington in 1949, and Picton in 1950.
Don won the New Zealand Championship Singles five times, once for St Georges Rowing Club 1956/57 at Karapiro and four times for West End Rowing Club in 1952/53 at Queenstown; in 1953/54 at Picton; in 1954/55 at Wairoa and in 1955/56 at Invercargill.
He also won the Eight’s championship three times for West End in 1948/49 Karapiro; in 1950/51 at Akaroa and 1951/52 at Wellington.
He won a Silver Medal in the New Zealand Eight at 1950 Empire Games at Karapiro and a Gold Medal at 1954 Empire Games at Vancouver, on the Vedder Canal.
His time as a rowing selector included the golden years of the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games and he then turned his attention to securing for New Zealand the world championships in 1978. The event at Karapiro was regarded as outstanding and Rowlands was deservedly praised as the man most responsible. This was the first time the world rowing championship was held outside of Europe or North America. The main facility at Lake Karapiro is named the Sir Don Rowlands Centre in recognition of his contribution.
In the 1973 New Year Honours, Don Rowlands was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to rowing, and he was promoted to Commander of the same order in the 1979 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
In the 2015 New Year Honours, shortly before his death, Rowlands was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and rowing. In the 2015 Australia Day Honours he was appointed an honorary Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the sport of rowing.
Sir Don was named as a member of the New Zealand Olympic Order in 1991. He won the leadership award at the 2005 Halberg Awards. He was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. In August 2014, he was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.