- Date Of Birth: April 27, 1922
- Date Of Death: June 30, 2010
- State: Connecticut
Colin Roy Gemmell, age 88, of Spokane, Washington, died peacefully at Chris’s Home and Care Center in Spokane on Wednesday, June 30, 2010.
He was born April 27,1922, in the Town of Ansonia, New Haven County, the second son of the late William and Margaret (MacKechnie) Gemmell. He attended Orange Center School and graduated from New Haven High School in 1940.
Following the war, he made the first of many trips to his mother’s original homeland, Scotland, where began a lifelong devotion to the land, music, history and people. Upon returning to the U.S., he was married to the former Catherine Mullen Elliott of Derby, with whom he raised nine children in Orange. Colin was a stockroom supervisor at Olin Chemical Corporation in New Haven, and later co-owner and administrator of the former Ocean View Nursing Home in West Haven.
He retired to the Pacific Northwest, and later Idaho, where he built a home, and started a Scottish import business with his companion, Carolyn Mosebar.
Colin was an avid reader, a student of history, and a member of the British Legion. He delighted in camping, cooking, gardening, the planting of trees, and a well-timed political debate on a long car ride. He was adventuresome and fun-loving, and believed: “You have to have something to look forward to”, so when returning from any trip he would begin planning the next.
Colin is survived by his brother and his wife, Ian and Jean of Hamden, CT; his brother and his wife, Ranald and Marian of Orange, CT; his daughter, Grian MacGregor of Lake Hill, NY, his son and his wife, Donald and Suzanne of Mooresville, NC; his son Colin II of Lacey, WA; his son and his wife, Hugh and Mary of Portland, OR; his daughter, Kyle, of Auburn, WA; his son William of Nine Mile Falls, WA; his son and his wife, Robert and Susan of Nine Mile Falls, WA, his son and his wife, Douglas and Veronica of Lacey, WA, and his daughter and her husband, Iah and Mark Cluckey of Spokane, WA; He is further survived by nieces, nephews, ten grandchildren and two great grandchildren, other relatives and friends. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by three brothers, Donald, Ward, and Alistair.
