A KIND-hearted great-grandfather who helped start the Border Steam and Oil Engine Club’s annual steam and vintage display has died at the age of 87.
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Jack Elliott hosted the rally on his Leneva property at Easter for 42 years. He died on Sunday after a short illness.
His son, Lance Elliott, said his father was kind-hearted, loved animals and “would never hurt anything or anyone”.
“Whenever it would rain lots he would walk around and pick up the worms so they wouldn’t dry out and die on the concrete, that’s just the kind of man he was,” he said.
Mr Elliott was born in Albury and raised in Wooragee. He married his wife Joyce in 1953 and made a life for himself and three children at Leneva.
A dairy farmer until 1990, he went on to become a beef farmer and was a cattle stock carrier for many years.
He was involved with the Country Fire Authority for 67 years.
Mr Elliott’s passion for steam engines started as a teenager.
“They are slow and cumbersome but there is something special in the way they move, the power, the steam,” he told The Border Mail in 2009.
“When they are cold they are lifeless but then as they start to heat up they take on a life of their own.”
Steam and engine club member Darren Dakos described Mr Elliott as a genuine bloke with a passion for engines.
“He was a real nice bloke, very charitable and community-minded,” he said.
“Jack was always talking about steam and oil engines and they got an old traction engine going that had been laid up for a few years and he was like a little boy with his toy at Christmas to see it running again,” he said.
Close friend Charlie Boase, another member of the club, reminisced about the time they used the traction engine to pull out a large pine tree that had died on Mr Elliott’s property.
“Jack will be sorely missed, he was always there with a smile,” he said.
The club will continue to run the annual vintage display at Easter.
Mr Elliott is survived by his wife Joyce, and had three children Lance, Erika and Russell (dec), five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
A funeral will be held at Wodonga’s Conway Funeral Home on Monday.