THE last-surviving of three long-serving Albury Wodonga Development Corporation commissioners has died at the age of 95.
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Les Muir served 10 years as the corporation's NSW deputy chairman alongside his Commonwealth counterpart Gordon Craig and Victorian equivalent Mel Read.
The great-grandad died in Canberra on August 23 and his funeral was held on Monday.
"He was very much a person trying to promote both Albury's interests and the corporation's interests," Mr Alker-Jones said.
"He was well liked and well regarded."
Mr Alker-Jones said Mr Muir would often host delegations and had a microphone system in his car which he would use to address dignitaries in the back seat as he drove around the Twin Cities.
Mr Muir was born in Melbourne, the youngest of three with his only sister Jean Blackburn, a noted education advocate.
Army training at Bandiana during World War II first brought him to the Border and resulted in him meeting future wife Connie Marshall.
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They wed in 1947 and after time in Melbourne they settled in Albury in 1951 with Mr Muir an accountant.
Mr Muir was elected to Albury Council in 1968 and subsequently became a part-time citizen member of the AWDC alongside Wodonga mayor Les Stone.
A Border Morning Mail report on their appointments was headlined 'Les & Les...they're our team'.
Mr Muir, who finished as a councillor in 1976, had two five-year terms as a commissioner, covering 1974 to 1984.
He oversaw the development of estates at Thurgoona and Springdale Heights and had a focus on tertiary education.
Mr Muir was chairman of the Albury-Wodonga Post-School Education Co-ordination Committee and had been part of unsuccessful moves for a cross border university.
In 1994, he was recognised for his support for the creation of Wodonga TAFE which involved him handling the transfer of the former AWDC building to the school.
After leaving the AWDC, Mr Muir and his wife moved to Canberra where their three daughters were already living.
Mrs Muir died in 2011 and Mr Muir continued to live at the Catholic retirement village where they had been residing.
He is survived by daughters Janet, Annette and Helen and eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
