Derek Logan passed away in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital following a stroke.

He was a member of the Portadown team which won the Towns' Cup in the late 1950s and recently he attended a reunion for the survivors of the 1957 and 1959 cup-winning sides.

Portadown born and bred, Derek - who was predeceased by his brother, Garfield - was the eldest of five children.

He was educated at Edenderry Primary School and Portadown College.

He entered the world of employment at the age of 16 by joining William Sprott Ltd, remaining with the Edward Street company for 44 years. He retired at the age of 60, never having worked anywhere else.

He married Ann in 1962 and within a few years the couple had become parents. Jill was born first, followed by Peter.

Derek was a model father - loving, caring and supportive, but never boastful about his children's achievements. Quite the opposite, in fact, for by nature he was both modest and unassuming.

He was a warm and generous man, too, and when Jill married Brad and Peter wed Joan, the new son-in-law and daughter-in-law were brought into the family and treated like Derek and Jill's own children.

PLEASURE

In due course he became the grandfather of six grandsons, 'the boys' as he called Jill and Brad's quartet in Kent - Jake, Angus, Hugo and Oli - and Peter and Joan's sons Charlie and Joe here in Portadown.

'The boys' were a huge source of great pleasure to him and he was never happier than when playing sport with them.

Often he was in considerable pain with a knee injury which dogged him for years. And it was while he was in the Royal for surgery to ease that problem that he suffered his fatal stroke.

School runs had been a big part of his post-retirement life and he enjoyed providing an unpaid taxi service on both sides of the Irish Sea. Indeed, he was on first-name terms with many of the Kent mums, for on retiring from work he and Ann became frequent visitors to Jill and Brad's home.

At work he had risen to become a company director in Sprotts, citing his most enjoyable years as having been the 10 in which he worked alongside son, Peter, who followed him into the business.

The workforce at the factory where he spent his entire working life held Derek in the highest regard.

An all-round sportsman, he loved football, rugby and golf and he was very good at each.

He played football for Portadown reserves and, in the summer, Rugby Rovers, earning a reputation for his particularly hard tackling.

But he excelled at the other 'football' code - rugby - and dozens of his former oval ball colleagues joined Portadown officials in the congregation which packed Thomas Street Methodist Church, the turn-out reflecting his popularity and the regard in which he was held by so many.