Odenwald Association member and former Chair Andy Christie died on 2nd January in Glasgow Royal Infirmary following a stroke. We are all shocked and saddened at his sudden passing. We have lost a good friend and a stalwart member of the Odenwald Association.
Andy was committed to the concept of twinning between communities in different countries and served for ten years as our Chair, following on from the late Peter Lamont. His involvement however reaches further back than that. As a professional in the Community Education service in Central Regional Council he was centrally involved in organising youth exchanges with the towns in the Odenwald.
As an officer in the Education Department Andy also facilitated the long-established link between Larbert High School and the Gymnasium in Michelstadt.
These included visits by volleyball teams and with swimmers from the swimming club in Michelstadt along with their coach Karl-Heinz Loeb, who we also lost this year. To this day you can still come across folks in Falkirk who got to know Germany through these youth exchanges.
In later years the bi-annual Schottland-Vereinigung coach trips, organised by Karl Heinz Loeb, would arrive in Stirling. Based at the student chalets at Spittalhill they were supported by members of the Association. Andy would invariably be present. I recall one evening Andy with his guitar singing bothy ballads to an appreciative gathering in one of the chalets!
For Andy was not only a committed supporter of town twinning he was also an enthusiastic member of the Falkirk Folk Club and a long-standing member of the Airth Highland Games Committee.
I followed Andy as Chair of the Association and he was always on hand with guidance and advice, supporting our activities, not least of which was arranging our schedule for staffing the gates on Airth Highland Games Days.
Andy Christie was a very big presence who we will all miss enormously.
Falkirk Twinning 