In 2012, a special memorial scholarship fund was established to honour the memory of Ray and Jean Elliott, who ran Pinnacle Farm on the western outskirts of Renfrew for more than fifty years. Both raised to be thrifty and self-reliant through farm life, the couple met in the early 1930s after Ray emigrated from East Anglia in England to Canada in 1923. Jean was born in rural Eastern Ontario on the Third Line of Horton Township on a farm settled by her Stewart forebears.
Both country people for whom the term “family farm” meant a satisfying way of life, Ray and Jean believed in taking on only what you could afford and manage for yourself. “We were taught from a young age the importance of hard work and stewardship,” said their daughter Judy Lindsay, one of the Elliott’s three surviving children, now a Vancouver resident. “Our parents tended their Holsteins with care; milking was a twice-a-day, seven-days-a-week chore that they shared. Then there was all the ploughing, seeding, cropping – it was a never-ending cycle that nevertheless had its rewards of a decent living, independence and healthy children.”
After the milk quota became the dominant factor of every dairy farmer’s life in the ‘60s, Jean became a vocal advocate for the importance of supporting small farms, writing essays for CBC radio and letters to newspapers. Active in the community well into her older years, Jean was a stalwart member of the Women’s Institute and the University Women’s Club, as well as a prize-winning photographer and Horton Township’s Senior Citizen of the Year in 2007.
Ray was also very involved in community work, volunteering for many years as a member of the Renfrew Collegiate Institute school board and as a Sunday School superintendent and church supporter. “Our parents were always on the go,” says Judy, “I could never believe how many meetings and community events they would attend in the evenings after working such long hours on the farm, but contributing to the community was something that was always very important to them both.”
It was for that reason, along with the pride and care Ray and Jean poured into the family farm, that Judy wanted to create a tribute to their memory. “As much as farming has evolved over the years, it’s still those principles of good stewardship of the land and animals that our parents demonstrated that remain the most crucial component to running a successful family farm,” says Judy. “By establishing a scholarship fund with the Ottawa Community Foundation we’re able to honour that legacy while encouraging the next generation to carry forth those key stewardship values and practices.”
The Ray and Jean Elliott Scholarship Fund will provide support to graduating students of the Renfrew Collegiate Institute who are studying for careers in farming, agricultural science or large animal veterinary practice. “I’m sure our parents would be very pleased knowing they have contributed to the future of agriculture in this way,” says Judy, “and that the Foundation will in turn be the careful steward of a legacy that supports the educating of Renfrew’s young people long into the future.”