Charles Ian Angus Linnhe Reid of Biltmore Forest in Asheville passed away Friday, March 16, 2018, at Givens Health Center at age 92.
He was born Dec. 23, 1925, at his family home in Nairn (near Inverness), Scotland, U.K., and had lived in western North Carolina since 2001.
He grew up in London and received his early schooling at Stonyhurst Academy, a private boys’ boarding school in Lancashire, U.K. After service in the British Navy in World War II, he graduated from Oxford University with both a Bachelor of Arts degree and Master of Arts in chemistry, continuing a Reid family tradition of industrial chemists. His grandfather, Thomas Reid, was chairman of the British Linen Bank and Nobel’s Explosives, the company set up by Alfred Nobel to manufacture and market dynamite in Great Britain. The family lived at that time at “Kilmardinny House” in Bearsden near Glasgow, Scotland.
After a two-year sabbatical in Killarney, Ireland, Charles joined Monsanto Corporation in London, and eventually its international division, which brought him to the United States as a specialist in the tire industry. This took him frequently to Southeast Asia. After lengthy postings in Akron, Ohio, Hong Kong and Brussels, Belgium, he was tasked with the establishment of Monsanto’s first branch office in Moscow, then the USSR.
He retired to Sydney, Australia, in 1982. There he met and married, in 1997, Nancy Sales Cash, a native of Murphy and long-time resident of Sydney, who survives him. In 2006 they moved full-time to Asheville from Sydney, having lived here part-time for five years.
His parents were Charles Thomas (C.T.) and Jean Allen Reid. He is survived by five children from two previous marriages (both previous spouses are deceased): Catriona Taralrud-Bay and Dominique Reid of Melbourne, Australia; Caroline Bowen of Bozeman, Mont.; Iain Reid of Chesapeake, Va.; Gordon Reid of Sydney, Australia; eight grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren; goddaughter Elspeth Collins-Taylor Shaw of Hong Kong; and godson Christopher Williams of Chesire, U.K.
The “bairn from Nairn,” as Charles called himself with a smile, was an avid gardener and hobby farmer, an unenthusiastic golfer, and an indefatigable traveler, sailor and epicurean. He was a member of The Hong Kong Club and Biltmore Forest Country Club. For more than 65 years, he was a member of The Royal Institute of Chemistry in the U.K.
A funeral service conducted by Nancy’s cousin, the Rev. Michael Shuford, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Elkin, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, March 19, at Tomotla United Methodist Church near Murphy. Burial will follow immediately in the Sales family section of the Tomotla Community Cemetery.
Ivie Funeral Home of Murphy is handling arrangements for the family.
An online memorial is available at www.iviefuneralhomeinc.com.
The family requests that any donations be made in Charles’ name to Care Partners, 68 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville NC 28803.