Remembering Huntly's Morag Black (94): Citizen of the year, educator and linchpin of community and kirk
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
FORMER Huntly Citizen of the Year and retired teacher Morag Black has died shortly after her 94th birthday.
Morag taught in the town for more than 25 years – as a primary school teacher and then an adult literacy tutor – and played a leading role in many church and community activities.
She and her husband Jimmy were jointly awarded the Citizen of the Year award in 1998, just a few months before he died the following year.
Morag Jean Learmonth was born in August 1929 on a croft on the Orkney island of Sanday.
She went on to become the dux of Kirkwall Grammar School before doing her teacher training in Edinburgh and returning to Kirkwall to start her career.
Through her church’s youth fellowship group she met Jimmy, a lawyer from Edinburgh who had worked in Huntly for a couple of years before moving to Orkney.
The pair married in 1953 and five years later moved with their two young sons to Huntly where Jimmy had been offered a law partnership.
After doing occasional stints as a supply teacher – teaching English at The Gordon Schools and primary classes in Huntly and elsewhere – Morag returned to full-time teaching at Gordon Primary School in 1968.
She taught Primary Three pupils there until 1984, when she had to retire early because of back pain, which had troubled her for years and which she bravely endured for the rest of her life.
In 1982, she fulfilled a long-held ambition when she graduated from the Open University with an M.A. degree in educational psychology.
Almost immediately after retiring from her primary school job, Morag got involved in adult basic education as a voluntary tutor, trainer of tutors and organiser for Grampian Regional Council, covering an area that included Huntly, Insch, Keith and Dufftown.
She did this adult literacy work for about 10 years, during which time she was also a tutor of Scottish literature for the Workers’ Educational Association.
Morag was always enthusiastically involved in the community of Huntly, particularly in Strathbogie Kirk where she became its first female elder in 1972.
She was a stalwart of Strathbogie Guild, having held all of the office-bearer positions at one time or other.
In the 1960s she was a leading fundraiser in the campaign to build Huntly’s swimming pool, being one of the joint conveners of the annual fete in aid of the pool.
She was also a member of Huntly Operatic Society and an active supporter of the town’s Rotary Club, of which Jimmy was president at one stage, and of the Liberal Party.
The couple were founder members of Books Abroad, the Rhynie-based charity which has been supplying second-hand books to schools in developing countries since 1982, and were also supporters of the Scout Association.
For most of their years in Huntly, they lived in the former home of Victorian poet and author George MacDonald.
Morag became an expert on MacDonald and did much to promote the revival of interest in him in his home country.
She and Jimmy entertained many MacDonald admirers and scholars from all over the world who came to visit Huntly.
One of the last community roles Morag gave up, when well into her 70s, was as a director of Huntly Mental Health (now Networks of Wellbeing).
Previously she had been a helper at the town’s Torrisoule Luncheon Club, which provided hot meals and company for elderly people.
She also volunteered as an assistant at Huntly’s Red Cross shop for many years in her retirement and was a member of the Huntly branch of the Probus club.
Morag died in Scott’s eventide home in Huntly on Monday (August 7).
She is survived by her sons Neil and Duncan.
