Passing of Bill Steele is being felt by so many
THE sudden death of a well-known Kingussie-based building contractor and churchman at the age of 70 has shocked the community.
Tributes have flooded in to Bill Steele following his passing on Thursday.
Mr Steele took ill during a house inspection at Nairn and desperate attempts to revive him were in vain.
He was a devoted husband to Cheryl, father to Lynny and Lorna, father-in-law to Philip and Rhoda and grandfather to Glen and Peter.
But he also gave much of his life over to the Church of Scotland, serving in various roles, latterly as a hugely effective session clerk for Alvie and Insh Church and inspirational convener of the Kirk's social care council.
Messages arriving at the family home from across the strath and far beyond bore testimony to the number of lives he had touched in his faith-based work.
Mr Steele, born and bred in London, had worked in shipping before moving to the strath with Cheryl and Lynny to join his extended family at Kincraig in 1977.
A gifted artist and craftsman, he ran a horn-carving business at the Rowantree Hotel in Lynwilg before setting up Bill Steele Contractors and basing the family in Kingussie.
Despite his workaholic approach to the business, he devoted more and more of his time to the Church, travelling around Scotland and internationally to develop its social programmes and preserve its many properties.
Always a Christian – and star of many Fellowship of Youth productions in his youth – Mr Steele had come to a living faith in 1987 and found his calling as a lay preacher, kirk elder and support to so many Highlanders in real need.
His life will be celebrated on Monday at noon in the church that he loved by Loch Insh.
