My father, John Ellis, who has died aged 78, was a former teacher and director of education and an active member of a number of prominent Welsh charities.
John was the youngest of three children of Thomas Ellis, a quarryman in the north Wales slate industry, and his wife, Maggie (nee Jones). He grew up intrigued by the landscapes and natural history of the Snowdonia mountains, which surrounded his home in Abergynolwyn, Gwynedd. He attended Abergynolwyn primary school and Tywyn grammar school, and then went on to study geography at Swansea University, graduating in 1962. He married his childhood sweetheart, Miriam (nee Lewis), in 1963.
He became a geography teacher at Clark’s grammar school, in Bristol, and Castle Bromwich Park Hall high school for boys, in the West Midlands. He never lost his ability to inspire others’ interest in landscapes and cultures. Both his children went on to follow him into teaching geography.
In 1969 he became an education officer in Swansea, moving on to work at West Glamorgan county council in 1974. In 1982 he took a job at Dyfed county council, becoming its director of education in 1991. Here, his forthright defence of Welsh language education gave him a local media profile and led to him being honoured as a member of the Gorsedd, the order of bards at the Welsh Eisteddfod.
He took early retirement as a result of local government reorganisation in 1996, though this was interrupted by a brief spell as interim director of education of the new Carmarthenshire council.
The last 20 years of his life was dedicated to helping a range of community, charitable and civic organisations, fostering links between Wales and Lesotho, fundraising for his village church, advisory roles for the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, the National Botanic Gardens of Wales and a local regeneration partnership, Menter Cwm Gwendraeth. Through all these activities he pursued his belief that learning, in many different guises, lay at the heart of social opportunity. For his voluntary work he was appointed OBE in 2016.
Miriam died in 2008. He is survived by my sister, Eira, and me, and by six grandchildren.
