Person:Marcus Elcan (5)

Published Date: Wednesday 14th March 2007 The Farmville Herald

M. C. Elcan Jr. Of Lynchburg Dies Saturday

  LYNCHBURG, March 13 - Marcus Cleveland Elcan Jr., of Lynchburg, died Saturday, March 10, 2007, at Lynchburg General Hospital. 
  Born December 29, 1926 in Terre Haute, Indiana, he was the son of the late Marcus Cleveland Elcan Sr. and the late Marie Sheppard Jones Elcan. Both of his parents were natives of Buckingham County, to which the family returned a few years after his birth. 
  He was graduated from Buckingham Central High School in 1944. Enlisting in the U.S. Army during World War II, he received training at Penn State University and New York University, and served in the Army Signal Corps in the Aleutian Islands and in Alaska. Following discharge from the Army he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Penn State, and a master’s degree in public relations from Boston University.
  Almost all of his working career was devoted to industrial communications. He served from 1951 to 1953 as editor of The Dan River News for Dan River Mills in Danville, from 1953 to 1964 as editor of The Iron Worker for Lynchburg Foundry Company; and from 1966 to 1987 in various positions relating to employee and community communications and services for General Electric Company’s Lynchburg Plant. Upon his retirement from GE, he has served as editor, on a voluntary basis, of Lynch’s Ferry, official publication of the Lynchburg Historical Foundation.

  Mr. Elcan was a charter member of The Kirk at Forest, and served as ruling elder, as a Sunday school teacher, and on various committees. Other community interests included the Lynchburg Chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), and the Churches For Urban Ministry (C.U.M.) Timothy Program for inner-city children. In 1962 he was the recipient of the B’nai B’rith humanitarian man of the year award in Lynchburg.

  He was married in 1954 to Anita Spain, who survives him; a daughter, Martha Marie Elcan and her husband, Scott Guthrie of Van Nuys, CA and a daughter, Jeannette Elcan Arrington; a son, William Mark Elcan, and 12 grandchildren: Jason, Sean, Laurie, Nicole, Scott, and Katherine Elcan, and Heather, Jade Galen, Samantha, Dustin, and Caleb Arrington, and five great-grandchildren.

  A funeral service was held Monday at 7 p.m. at Tharp Funeral Home Chapel with the Reverend James R. Dellert officiating. A private burial will take place at the Presbyterian Cemetery.

  The family requests memorials be made to The Kirk, 1577 Thomas Jefferson Blvd., Forest, VA 24551 or to Churches for Urban Ministry Timothy Program, c/o Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1022 Floyd St., Lynchburg, VA 24501.   Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Lynchburg, assisted the family.