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Leo Carroll 1939-2016

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Dr Leo Carroll who passed away peacefully over the weekend following a short illness.

Leo was the current Northern Athletics President and proudly carried out his duties at all this year’s Championships. The honour was in recognition of his long standing work and commitment to athletics, for his work with his club, Wirral AC, with the local leagues, Merseyside County AA and with the North of England.

He was a lovely man and his considerable academic background was a great asset to our sport. He was of course a talented athlete and only recently he recalled his post graduate time at Harvard in the States during the 1960s when he not only ran fast times indoors over there but excelled in the Boston Marathon.

Leo was educated at St Anselm’s College in Birkenhead and went onto further study at Liverpool University followed by a post graduate degree at Harvard University in Boston. Returning to Liverpool he became a Senior Staff Lecturer in Small Particle Physics, Leo also worked with CERN (the European Nuclear Research Agency) on the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.

His athletics CV began in 1955 when he joined Wirral AC where he soon showed his talent as a Road and Cross Country runner, even winning an international vest for the Marathon. His achievements included victory in the 1969 Huddersfield Marathon in a time of 2:17.12, and third place behind Juan Taylor and Bill Adcocks at the 1965 Inter County 20 mile Championship.

Leo became Club Secretary at Wirral in 1981 and his other administrative roles included the Presidency of the Liverpool & District Cross Country Assoc. for over 30 years. He also served as ECCA President and was the current President of Northern Athletics. In addition he was a dedicated Endurance official who had helped to organise the infamous Women’s National Cross Country in 1985 at Arrowe Park when the event was invaded by anti-apartheid protestors objecting to the presence of Zola Budd. I am sure that Leo dealt with that incident in his habitual calm and intelligent way.

Leo will be missed and remembered by all of us and our condolences go to his family and close friends.

Funeral Details
Thursday 7th July at 11am at Landican Crematorium Arrowe Park Rd, Wirral CH49 5LW

Dr Leo Carroll receives his president's chain of office from retiring president Jean Simpson MBE

Dr Leo Carroll receives his president’s chain of office from retiring president Jean Simpson MBE