LOU Rowan was born at Murwillumbah on May 2, 1925, met his wife Isabel at Yangan, umpired 26 cricket Tests and spent 32 years in the Queensland Police Force before retiring to Yangan.

He died last week in Warwick Hospital after his health deteriorated over the past two months.

Lou was the second oldest of nine children, and his parents operated a dairy farm at Upper Burringbar, just outside Murwillumbah, in New South Wales.

He went to school at Ewingsdale State School, St Joseph's Byron Bay and Wilsons Creek State School.

Lou played his first cricket for Mullumbimby in the Brunswick District competition at age 18 or 19 where he played A and B grades.

His best bowling was 5-0 off 12 deliveries in a game between Blackall and Barcaldine when he was stationed in the west with the Queensland Police Force.

Lou umpired his first Sheffield Shield match in 1958 and his first Test in 1963.

There was no text messaging at that time, Lou read about his Test appointment in the Toowoomba Chronicle while doing a police investigation in the area.

He had joined the Queensland Police Force in 1948 and was based in Toowoomba and relieving on the Darling Downs when he was first stationed at Yangan.

He returned to Yangan as the permanent police officer for 11 months and met his future wife Isabel Zackrisen, who was then working at the Yangan Post Office.

They married at St Mary's Catholic Church in Warwick in 1954.

This week, family members described him as a man of great humour and very quick-witted.

He had a limited education but was well read.

"Dad was a purist in every sense of the word, there were no shades of grey," daughter Janelle said.

"He had a strong sense of justice and loved his involvement with his family.

"Dad was a highly respected and principled police officer, renowned for conducting himself with unswerving honesty and integrity."

One of the great memories of his four sons were the camping safaris to the Northern Rivers when the family was living at Holland Park in Brisbane.

"As the boys were being raised in the suburbs, Dad wanted to teach them bush skills," Janelle said.

No Shades of Grey was the name of his book on life and his time in the police force.

His other book, The Umpire's Story, was about his involvement in cricket and also relates to the Laws of the Game.

Lou joined the CIB as a detective in 1956 and was part of the drug and transport squads and also worked on transfer with New South Wales and Victorian police.

He retired with the rank of police inspector on August 3, 1980, and then worked as an investigator with commodity boards in an era when there were a lot of statutory requirements.

While he umpired the first international one-day match in Melbourne, his great love was Test cricket.

He stood in 26 Tests, 19 with his great mate Colin Egar. He was at the bowler's end when Egar no-balled Australian paceman Ian Meckiff.

In an interview with the Daily News at the time on his 90th birthday in 2015, Lou said there were no discussions between the umpires on Meckiff's action.

Lou is best remembered from the Sydney Test against England in 1971 when captain Ray Illingworth led the English team from the field after an incident between a spectator and paceman John Snow on the boundary.

Earlier, Snow had hit Australian tailender Terry Jenner with a bouncer.

Rowan and fellow umpire Tom Brooks headed to the English dressing room and Rowan ordered the team to return to the field or forfeit the game. The team did return to the field and the match report was forwarded to the MCC, the controlling body for English cricket and neither Illingworth or Snow toured again.

Test legend Doug Walters was in the Australian team in Sydney that day and recalled Lou making it very clear that unless the English team returned to the field, they would lose the Test.

"No one should argue with the umpire but a few tried but no one argued with Lou.

"He was an umpire with authority and probably transferred a bit of his detective role on to the field," Walters said.

"Lou was certainly well- respected as an umpire."

Walters said he had a few beers with Lou down the years.

"He was an interesting bloke to have a yarn to," Walters said.

Lou was close friends with Sir Donald Bradman, who he rated along with paceman Ray Lindwall as the best batsman and bowler of all time.

After he retired from umpiring, he was involved in forming the Umpires Association (Qld) and was the first president. He was also a board member of the Brisbane Cricket Ground Trust for 22 years.

Sir Donald and Lou corresponded by letter. Lou spoke highly of Sir Donald as an administrator and friend.

During one interview, he recalled attending the funeral of Lady Jessie Bradman and the first question from Sir Donald was "how is Isabel?".

During more than two decades living in retirement at Yangan, Lou headed a ratepayers association in the former Warwick shire for a time and was unsuccessful in his bid for mayor in the 2004 election. He often put his opinions forward in Letters to the Editor on anything to do with government, politics or cricket.

For many years, he headed to Sydney for the New Year's Test to catch up with his many friends and got to know another cricket tragic, then Prime Minister John Howard, who called the family this week.

He might have been a Blues supporter under State of Origin rules but he wore a Maroons jersey at Origin time and really enjoyed watching rugby league.

After the death of his wife Isabel in 2004, Lou found it much more difficult, but had the company of daughter Margaret at Yangan. He made a lot of friends in the Warwick area.

Reading remained one of his great interests. At the time of his 90th birthday, he said "where can you find a better valley to look at than the Swanfels Valley?".

He is survived by children Janelle, Margaret, Annette, Peter, Stephen, Lou, Bernadette and Philip, 21 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, sisters Win and Noreen and brother Reg. Lou's funeral is today (Friday) at St Mary's Catholic Church in Warwick with a Latin Requiem Mass at 12.30pm.