Michael Jeffery first came to the Royal Military College at Duntroon as a 16-year-old from outback Wiluna.
And after more than 60 years of service as a soldier, state governor and governor-general, he was farewelled in the place where his extraordinary career began, with a state funeral in Canberra on Tuesday.
The 83-year-old died earlier this month after a 16-month battle with a brain tumour.
After a military career spanning 40 years, Major General Jeffery served as governor of Western Australia from 1993 to 2000. He went on to serve as the 24th governor-general of Australia from 2003 to 2008.
Coronavirus restrictions meant only 160 mourners could attend the Anzac Memorial Chapel of St Paul to say goodbye.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny were in the front pew, appropriately distanced from current Governor-General David Hurley and wife Linda. John Howard and Julia Gillard were unable to come due to travel restrictions.
The order of service asked the congregation not to sing along to the national anthem of the hymns.
But despite the restrictions, friends, family and dignitaries remembered a man who lived in the service of others.
Brigadier Chris Roberts said Major General Jeffery was an exceptional Australian "by any measure".
His philosophy in life was to treat everyone with dignity, Brigadier Roberts said. He had the courage to tell his superiors and subordinates alike what they needed to know, not what they needed to hear.
He commanded at every combat level in the Australian army, including the unheard-of experience of commanding two rifle companies and two battalion-level units in two different units.
Appalled at the quarters married soldiers lived in, Major General Jeffery argued publicly for better conditions - a move some thought would cruel his career. Instead, it led to the Defence Housing Authority being established.
As governor of Western Australia, he demanded a long-standing sewage leak next to Wiluna Primary School be fixed immediately. He pushed for Aboriginal history to be taught in schools and fostered a program to combat glaucoma among Aboriginal communities.
In his retirement, he founded Soils for Life, and pushed to improve the condition of Australian soils and the environment.
Stephen Jiggins, who was Major General Jeffery's media advisor at Government House, described him as the "thank you-er in chief", always going out of his way to show his appreciation to those who worked for him.
"He would always say, I want to leave the country and my grandkids to have a better future than I found it," Mr Jiggins said.
His granddaughter Zoe van der Klooster said despite all his professional achievements, he was a family man.
He was married to wife Marlena for 54 years, with four children and seven grandchildren. If he caught your eye at the dinner table, he'd blow a kiss, Ms van der Klooster said.
His son Craig Jeffery remembered how he would "entertain the entire street" while singing Italian love songs in the shower.
Learning the words was one of the few areas in life he had not applied himself to, Mr Jeffery wryly noted.
Ms van der Klooster said her grandfather had been touched by how many people had reached out to him in the final months of his life, which were spent mostly in his wife's garden among the trees and flowers.
"He often said that if at the end of your life you could count yourself to have five good friends, then it was a life well-lived," she said.
"In his final year, he was surprised by how many people reached out to offer their love and respect for him.
"And despite his capacity to walk with kings, the humbleness of the boy from Wiluna never really left him.
"The number of friends in this room, and friends around the world who could not be with us today, testify to how extraordinary was the life he lived, and the man he was."
