Church worker and factory manager;
Born August 13,1920;
Died November 9, 2007.

FRANK Cooney, who has died aged 87 after a long illness, lived all of his life in the Clydeside village of Blantyre. In his concern for the social and spiritual well-being of his community, however, he imbued the international outlook and civic spiritedness of Blantyre's most notable native, the missionary-explorer David Livingstone.

A loving husband and dedicated family man, Cooney was universally esteemed for his rigorous but fair work ethic as production manager at the Hoover plant in Cambuslang.

In his leisure time, both before his retirement in 1982 and especially afterwards, he made a voluntary commitment to assist the sick and the poor through his involvement in the lay Catholic Society of St Vincent de Paul, of which he was a member for 67 years.

Having joined the society in St Joseph's Blantyre at the age of 19, he later assumed additional duties as treasurer and later president of the Motherwell diocesan council, and in 1982 he was elected national president, in which capacity he represented Scotland at international gatherings in Rome, Paris and Dublin.

In recognition of this work, the Bishop of Motherwell, the Rt Rev Joseph Devine presented Cooney with a Bene Merenti Medal from Pope John Paul II in October, 1997. At first, Cooney, who always shied away from personal publicity, declined the honour, but was only prevailed to accept it when he was told he could not insult the Pope.

Until a few months ago, he was still doing his regular round of visitations to what he called "the old folks" in the parish of St John Ogilvie, High Blantyre.

The third youngest in a family of 11, Cooney, the son of John Cooney, a collier ganger from Coalisland, Co Tyrone, and Sarah Skelton, from Milltown, Co Armagh, was born in Blantyre and educated at the local St Joseph's School. He was dux pupil in 1934, but the difficult economic conditions of the time prevented him from pursuing the higher studies he was eminently capable of.

On April 22, 1946, he married Mary (May) Clark, from Cadzow, whose father, David, was the popular manager of the Co-operative in Burnbank. The young couple settled in Blantyre, where they reared and educated four sons, John, David, Frank and Paul, and three daughters, Mary, Winifred and Cath.