Timothy S. Elliott, the man who championed the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria to give high school students a chance at college, and who worked for a City boating facility to benefit student athletes and local adult rowers, is a 2011 Living Legend of Alexandria.

Former member and chairman of the Alexandria School Board, and a soccer coach, member and chair of the Alexandria Parks and Recreation Commission, co-chair of the Alexandria Cultural Assessment Commission, Elliott said, "I keep my fingers in the pie and that keeps life sweet." Make that multiple pies. He has also served on the City Manager’s Small Business Task Force, and vice chair and board member of Old Town Civic Association. He’s a member of the Jones Point neighborhood community group and represented the OTCA on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Task Force. In the 1970s, he was one of the plaintiffs in a suit against Alexandria to prevent constructing apartment buildings on the Alexandria waterfront, where Founders Park stands.

Elliott includes volleyball, tennis, sailing, bicycling, and volunteering at rowing competitions among his recreational interests. He has also built a log cabin.

"I like doing things to make life better for people, and my wife Page is the same way. She may be working more quietly in the background, but she is there." Elliott says he’s been inspired by a family tradition that appreciated and participated in public service. "I was motivated as a kid. My father was a lawyer for the government for 36 years and also served in the Army. In 1928, my grandmother campaigned for Al Smith and this was only nine years after women got the right to vote." He is gratified that the life lesson has been passed down through the generations, pointing to a young granddaughter who allots a portion of her allowance to the homeless.

"Time is a vacuum and you fill it up." While on the school board, he was unable to accrue vacation time from his job at the Interior Department, because it was used instead for school board meetings and related activities.

ONE OF THE MOST life-changing acts and generosity came from the Elliott family in the 1980s. They took in Italian exchange student and rower Espedito Gasparo, who lived with them for one year. Page Elliott saw Espedito’s college potential, despite his destiny to be a secretary upon his return to Italy. "What would have happened to that kid? There was 27 percent unemployment and the Mafia was everywhere." The Elliotts supported Espedito’s nearly impossible dream to attend college. He graduated from T.C. Williams, as did the Elliott’s two children Farar and Schuyler. Espedito graduated from the University of Naples, came back to the United States for an internship with an economist and met his future wife. Remaining here, Espedito is now a U.S. citizen and has a master’s degree from George Mason University. The Elliotts consider Espedito their son and his two children as among their total of six grandchildren.

Elliott himself graduated from Fairfax High School, then from Brandeis University and Harvard Law School. Elliott performed military service with the New York National Guard, as a telephone crewman and in the Virginia National Guard as a radio repairman.

Elliott began his professional career with the IBM Corporation. At IBM, Elliott’s work included federal, state and local government contract law, anti-trust, plant and laboratory management and labor and civil rights law. After 10 years, he left IBM to become an assistant solicitor with the U.S. Department of the Interior where he gave for legal advice regarding freedom of information requests, advisory committees, administrative procedures, ethics, and personnel litigation.