George McEwan, who served as session clerk of St Peter’s Parish Church in Inverkeithing, has died aged 82.
He retired from the post on his 70th birthday but served for a period as depute session clerk, gift aid convener and editor of the monthly newsletter. He continued to serve as an elder and remained a member of the Kirk Session.
George had been an elder at St Peter’s since 1974 not long after he and his family moved from Edinburgh to Fife.
He was born in Leith, Edinburgh, to George McEwan and his wife Zoe, nee Kennoway.
After leaving school, George began an engineering apprenticeship with Post Office telephones, which required additional study at technical college.
As he progressed through the organisation he became involved in exchange construction.
Modernisation
One of the projects he worked on was the conversion of Inverkeithing exchange from boards operated by staff to an automated analogue system, which eventually gave way to full digitalisation.
Later in his career with the Post Office, which became British Telecom, George was one of the executive engineers managing the transition to new plant and equipment and overseeing contracts.
George met his future wife, Norma, in Edinburgh and they married in St Thomas’ Church, Leith, in 1961. They went on to have two of a family, George and Fiona.
In 1972, the family relocated from Edinburgh to live in Inverkeithing.
Outdoors
Outside work, George went hillwalking with friends. He climbed many Munros but did not consider himself a Munro bagger.
Family holidays were usually spent in Aultbea in north-west Scotland, an area George and Norma had a particular fondness for.
A dedicated gardener, George also enjoyed photographing flowers and plant.
In a period before the computerisation of genealogical records, George spent many hours at National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh researching family history, a project he later bequeathed to a younger relative.
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