Mike Kelly, LOC’s first chairman.
LOC is sad to report that founder member Mike Kelly recently passed away following a brain haemorrhage. Whilst very few of our current members were orienteering when Mike was in Lakeland OC we owe him thanks for starting our club when he and a few others realised that there was a strong enough ‘northern’ group within SROC to justify a new Club. Mike was the first Chairman of LOC and very active in the early 1970s.
Mike, together with Bryn Jones, planned the first ever LOC event on 11th October 1970 – a National Badge Event at Tarn Hows and they also drew a colour map for the event – at a time when redrawn maps were still very new. Around the same time he was successfully competing in events like the Karrimor MM and the Lake District Mountain Trial. The accompanying photo shows Mike and Bryn competing in the 1970 Karrimor where they finished 2nd Elite team not far behind Joss Naylor/Allen Walker. Very sadly Bryn died in a climbing accident the following year.
Mike played a leading role for the next few years as LOC got established – for example planning the 1971 Northern Championships in Grizedale; helping to organise and run a significant part of the Pennine Way in LOC’s 1972 Relay run (37 hrs 32 mins): competing for England in France when he came 2nd behind Geoff Peck to help England beat France and other national teams and helping survey the full Tarn Hows area for the 1973 British Championships.
Mike worked at Lancaster University for many years before retiring to a croft near Mallaig. Long-time SROC member John Taylor worked with him at Lancaster and remembers him as an extremely capable and modest man in everything he did.
We offer our sincere sympathy and condolences to his wife Jane and Mike’s family.
Derek Fryer