My father John Fulton, who has died aged 87, was an artist, educator, school inspector, and holder of world records for powerlifting. He was a free-spirited person who believed that the human imagination and intellect develop through physical interactions with the world; he maintained a strength-training discipline despite a struggle with cancer in his 70s.
Born in Edinburgh to a Presbyterian father, William, and his wife Jane-Helen (nee Ettershank), he grew up in Lancaster, where his father taught at the technical college. He later described his youth in a letter to a friend: "The landscape offered much scope for adventure, becks for damming and fishing, the Lune for river swimming, the estuary for camping, for rafting; woods and fields for young gang wars, farms for learning to plough and milk and handle cattle, pigs, sheep and horses. We did go to school but there were also opportunities for all kinds of interesting war work. Hands-on involvement was what appealed to me."
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