Glen Elliot: A force of nature, community champion and Elgin Rotary Club member for 48 years
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A FORMER leading figure in the Rotary Club of Elgin and a real champion of his local community, Glen Elliot, has died at the age of 86.
Glen died peacefully, at Parkhouse Manor Care Home in Glasgow on March 28. He had suffered with Alzheimer's for a number of years.
Formerly of Pluscarden Road, Elgin, Glen and his wife Betty were married for over 50 years.
Glen was a member of Elgin Rotary Club for 48 years and a founding member of the Bell's Rotary Marafun which was first staged in 1991. The team relay marathon distance event raised more than £450,000 for local charities over the years.
He was made a Member of the British Empire in 2016 for services to the community and Elgin Rotary Club, and had life membership of Rotary bestowed on him in 2020.
Many local clubs and organisations benefited from his energy and work, among them Elgin Golf Club and Moray Road Runners.
Born in the Gorbals in Glasgow on June 4, 1936, Glen completed a draughtsman apprenticeship with Babcock and Wilcox and later worked in India for a number of years.
Glen's mother worked in a Gorbals dairy as a milk lady assistant and his father worked as a milk delivery roundsman. They married in 1931 and his mother opened Elliot’s Dairy soon after at 83 Florence Street. Glen helped out in the business as a young boy.
On leaving school, Glen applied to Babcock and Wilcox for a job as an apprentice draughtsman and started with the company in 1954, one of 800 apprentices. In 1959 Glen was presented with the Managing Director’s Award.
An accomplished footballer and runner, Glen played with a number of clubs in his youth, most notably Third Lanark, Hibs, Sheffield Utd, Arsenal, and Arthurlie FC. He was a coach at Simshill Athletic Football Club in Glasgow and later ran for Elgin AAC after moving north.
He was a massive Rangers fan but signed for Hibernian, who were a famous team at the time, only to realise when he returned home from Easter Road with his father that he had missed a call in the interim from the Ibrox club, but he had already put pen to paper with the Edinburgh side and played for them.
After leaving Hibs after 18 months, he was invited south by Sheffield Utd and went on to have a trial with Arsenal, who offered him a full-time contract, but he turned it down to focus on his apprenticship.
In 1960 Glen and Betty were married and later moved to India, where Glen would run an estimating department for two of the world's largest engineering firms. They moved back to the UK after three years there.
Glen, Betty and the family came to Elgin in January 1973 when Glen was appointed manager of Elgin Central Engineers.
He later set up his own business, Elliot Technical Services and The Top Agency, providing engineering and secretarial services respectively.
Glen joined the Rotary Club of Elgin in 1975 introduced by John Loud. He went on to become President in 1990-91.
At a time when such things were awarded very rarely, he was presented by the club with a Paul Harris Award for services to the community in 1991 and received a further Paul Harris Award for international projects from the Clubs of District 7280 in Pennsylvania in 1998.
Glen was part of a golden generation of Elgin Rotarians whose “can do” mentality introduced the notion of the big event to the club.
This started with the Taste of Moray event in Cooper Park in 1984 masterminded by Jim Royan and Chris Bannerman.
It was followed in 1988 by a Musical Extravaganza, again in Cooper Park. Thousands attended a variety of concerts and £20,000 was raised for Polio Plus. Of that £6000 came from a then record sale of a rare 60-year-old malt from The Macallan – and it was Glen who engineered and negotiated the sale.
Along with Dr Donald Brown, Glen was a key figure in the establishment of Moray Road Runners in 1985.
Very quickly reaching 300 members, “Todays Runner Magazine” announced it was the fastest growing running club in the UK.
Glen had a close involvement with the Moray Marathon for 22 years which started as a marathon and went on to comprise 10k and half marathon events as well.
He also ran in the London, New York and Paris marathons.
As a member of Elgin Rotary and a keen runner himself, Glen along with his great friend, Raymond Wood, was also instrumental in instigating the club’s bi-annual Marafun event sponsored by Bell’s. He chaired the event committee in 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997.
This town centre team relay event was massively successful, attracting 650 runners taking part in teams of five, cheered on by crowds in the region of 10,000 folk. At its peak it raised over £52,000 at each bi-annual event benefitting local charities and the likes of the Moray Scanner Appeal, and the Princess Royal Trust.
After he stepped down as the event’s organiser he continued to play a massive part, leading the commentary team and latterly as a co-host at the President’s lunch for sponsors and dignitaries at Diageo.
He maximised every opportunity to promote the club and Rotary to the local community and beyond. Under his leadership the club won numerous awards for PR at both District and National level.
In 2002, Glen worked with PR and communications convener Ian Davidson on a publication for the club's 75th anniversary – “Reflections on 75 Years”, which saw the pair spend hours together sifting through material and shaping the project.
Ian saw at first hand everything Glen brought to projects like that.
"Absolute commitment and dedication, a determination to succeed, hours of effort - no stone unturned. He was a perfectionist.
"He was a pest! I lost count of the number of times I thought we had cracked a particular chapter – but no – the phone would ring late at night or his cheery face would appear at the door – “You know, I think we could make this a wee bit better.”
And there were laughs and drams and glasses of wine. That was also very much a part of Rotary for Glen – it all had to be fun."
"In the end we got the job done and it seemed to go down well. One night shortly after we had gone to press the doorbell went. Glen on the doorstep. He was always a natty dresser and was looking at his sartorial best with his trademark powder blue sports jacket with matching shirt and tie.
"He was a man in a hurry – off to dinner with Raymond Wood, Jim Young and co but “wanted me to have this” and thrust a package into my hand. It was a beautifully framed print of the front cover of the booklet which had been designed by Graham Nairn. The note that went with it read “To Ian. A job well done. Awra best. Awra time. Glen”.
Glen always recognised and appreciated the effort put into a project by everybody else and made sure they knew about it.
Glen came up with idea after idea for doing good in the community and raising funds for Rotary projects. He was an entrepreneur and when he made up his mind something was going to happen it generally did. All done with a smile, Glaswegian patter and charm.
Another project was the Rotary Malt, subsequently the Fellowship Malt. Glen had the idea that the club could market its own single malt whisky, selling it to members and other clubs and the profit generated would go to Polio Plus.
John Grant at Glenfarclas was persuaded to back the project and by 2014, after overcoming a few hurdles, more than £120k had been raised which meant that 500,000 children could be immunised against polio.
Glen has long been a fan of the Band of the Royal Marines and suggested to the club in 2008-09 that a concert could be staged in Elgin Town Hall with proceeds going to charity. Glen was very persuasive and convinced it would work.
Ian added: "And within weeks he was back to us – the PT Barnum of Elgin Rotary Club had done it again and the Marines were coming to Elgin. The concert supported Help for Heroes, The Royal Marines Charitable Trust and the local branch of SSAFA.
Torrential rain saw the concert postponed with severe flooding in the area but with Glen's 'never-say-die' attitude, it was rescheduled and eventually took place in the summer of 2010.
Glen had a great rapport with the Marines and they came back for further concerts in 2011 and 2013. All of the concerts were sell-outs and raised more than £30,000 for the military charities.
Quite apart from these projects Glen supported and gave his all to everything that went
on in the club – the Winter entertainment programme, Rotary Revellers (he loved a song and a story), Bothy Ballads, Rotary Golf Exchanges to Pennsylvania, Christmas Collections, the Rotary Male Voice Choir, District and National Conferences – the whole lot.
He was the epitome of “Service above Self”.
Said Ian: "Glen was one of life’s great optimists – his glass was always half full – in fact full to the brim. He was always full of life and fun, always happy to talk. He had the ability to get on with anybody – he was always interested in what you had to say – it didn’t matter whether you were a lifelong friend or you had just met him.
"He had boundless energy – I swear he ran on Duracell batteries. He wanted everything he did just to be the best it could be.
"In the nicest possible way he would drive you nuts with his insatiable quest for perfection – to get everything spot on. But then there would be that disarming smile, a bit of banter and we’d be off again."
Glen was aided and abetted by Betty, his perfect foil and partner. They were great a great match, and devoted to each other.
He was a real family man and so proud of his children, Alan and Liz, and grandchildren – Gillian, Kirsty, Sam, Andrew and Katie.
Glen counted himself lucky in life and one of his last projects was to write a book, “Am I a lucky Guy” recounting many of his life experiences.
With the help of John Campbell and Alistair Campbell the book was finished and published in 2015 and again raised a considerable amount of money for charity.
Glen’s last few years were not easy - blighted by the onset of Alzheimers and dementia.
"He remained his usual cheery, optimistic self but with Betty also having health issues," said Ian, "they had to make the hard decision to give up their home and life in Elgin and move to Glasgow to be with family."
Ian said the death of Glen and another friend had hit him hard.
"I headed out into the garden at home – it had been a hard week. I was pretty down. It was one of the first real spring days. I cut the grass and worked the borders.
"Memories of Glen started to come to me – Glen the way he was when he was at his best. I suddenly realised I was smiling, chuckling actually. My mood lifted. The Elliot effect.
"I realised I was the lucky guy – lucky to have known Glen, lucky to have enjoyed his friendship for over 20 years, lucky to have been a fellow member of the Rotary Club of Elgin of which he was so very proud."
Former Rotarian and next door neighbour of Glen and Betty's in Elgin for 30 years, Jim Young, said: "It was such a wonderful experience to be next door to two Glasgow folk who were so friendly. I have many fond memories of Glen."
And John Campbell, who helped Glen write his book, added: "He was very welcoming to new members and a very loyal member of Elgin Rotary Club and the wider Rotary movement.
"We got to know each other quite well and we had a lot of fun when we were doing the book. We were good friends."
Ian Davidson paid a final tribute, one he shared with fellow Rotarians at a recent meeting.
"And so finally – Glen – from Rotary Elgin to you – “A job well done. Awra best, awra time.”
Glen's funeral service takes place at The Hurlet Crematorium, Barrhead on Wednesday, April 26.
Thank you to Ian Davidson for his insight into the life of Glen Elliot.
