Geoffrey Lee, who passed away aged 84, was an expert mountaineer, master joiner and keen golfer.
He also bagged every Munro in Scotland except one during a lifelong commitment to mountaineering.
Between 1958 and 1961 he served with the RAF search and rescue team based at Kinloss and led his team on many call outs.
In those days the team did not have access to a helicopter and would travel to rescues by Land Rover. His wife Bella remembers him being called out three times in one day to rescue people on Ben Nevis.
To keep themselves entertained on the long car journeys to a call out the team would sing many songs. These songs stuck with Geoffrey during his life and he was always singing these songs during any gathering or party.
Mr Lee and his team would cover the entire north of Scotland from Tayside, to the Western Isles and Caithness.
The only Munro he did not bag was Ben Lawers in Perthshire.
His son and daughter, Geoffrey and Julie, said it had always been their intention to complete the Munros with their father in later life but, regrettably, they did not achieve this.
Fascinated by mountains
Geoffrey Lee was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, and from his early teens was captivated by mountains.
As a young man he climbed the Eiger and the Matterhorn, and went on many climbing trips across Europe.
At the age of 16 he began an apprenticeship and qualified five years later as a master joiner. His final project to become a master joiner was an amazing spiral staircase.
His skills were employed when he was called up for National Service with the RAF.
As a joiner and carpenter, his job was to maintain and repair the wooden frames of Shackleton bombers stationed at Kinloss.
His mountaineering expertise was also recognised and the RAF asked Geoffrey to join the mountain rescue team at the base.
During this time he ran many courses for visiting SAS men, Royal Marines, police and other branches of the armed forces.
Marriage
In 1960 he married Bella (Anderson), from Alves Morayshire, and the following year he left the RAF as a senior aircraftsman.
A joinery job took the couple to Ashton-under-Lyne but they returned to Pluscarden in 1963 when Geoffrey became a construction site manager with Halls the builders and later became the clerk of works at Forsyth Builders of Elgin.
He later formed his own firm, GS Lee Joiners, undertaking housebuilding, craftsmanship work and renovation.
Although he fully retired in 2004, Geoffrey continued to carry out smaller jobs within the Morayshire area.
Papal visit
One commission he received was from the Benedictine monks of Pluscarden Abbey to make a crafted gift box to be presented to Pope John Paul II during his visit in 1982.
When Geoffrey and Bella visited Rome in the late 1990s they saw the gift box displayed in one of the glass cabinet at the Vatican Museum next to the Sistine Chapel.
During the 1980s and 1990s Geoffrey worked on the main roof at Pluscarden Abbey and on many Scottish heritage projects including the Chapter House at Elgin Cathedral and the refurbishment of Duff House Royal in Banff.
Golfing honour
In later years, Geoffrey took up golf and played at Elgin, Lossiemouth and Nairn. He was named golfer of the year by Golf World Magazine for reducing his handicap by 18 strokes in a 12-month period. He received a letter of congratulations from Seve Ballesteros.
During his golfing days he had three holes in one. At Elgin Golf Course he aced the 6th hole twice during competitive matches and continued to play regularly until October last year.
Geoffrey will be sadly missed by his entire family, Bella, Julie, Geoffrey, Fraser, Maureen and his grandchildren, Murray, Ross, Matthew, Natasha, Oliver and Daniel.