Meyer Averbuch, co-founder of one of Scotland’s oldest electronics and engineering companies, has died. He had just turned 88.

He passed away at home in Joppa, Edinburgh, on 6 September, after a long battle with Parkinson’s. His family said it was his wish to donate his remains to research into the neurodegenerative disease.

Meyer, who co-founded Musselburgh-based ZOT Engineering, was born in Cape Town, South Africa. A toolmaker by trade, he emigrated to Israel, then London where he met his future wife Ainslie. Together they moved to Scotland, where he became head of toolmaking at Hewlett Packard’s factory in South Queensferry.

Known for a quick and analytical mind, Meyer was remembered by colleagues for his exceptional ability to understand machining processes, and his sense of adventure in toolmaking. “Meyer would try anything,” former HP colleague John Wastle recalled in his 2016 memoir, describing the toolshop’s brief foray into gravity die-casting, an especially explosive experiment that involved molten aluminium.

In the tradition of HP founders Bob Hewlett and Dave Packard, Meyer was ahead of his time in recognising the potential for electronics fabrication and precision engineering. With partner Robin Cross, Meyer founded ZOT Engineering in 1975, starting in a garage of his then Gilmerton home, and becoming one of East Lothian’s largest employers. ZOT continues to be one of Europe’s leading printed circuit board manufacturers.

Meyer was born in Cape Town in July 1934, the third child of father Noach Moshe and mother Chava Kaplansky, whose family founded Lithuania’s first professional photographic studio. Meyer’s parents migrated from Lithuania to then Palestine as Zionists but later broke with the movement, relocating to South Africa. His father worked as a grocer and became a prominent Trotskyist and member of the Communist Party of South Africa.

Multi-lingual, Meyer in later years studied Yiddish and took up writing as a member of the Meadows Bar Writers Group, creating poems and short stories. His longer work includes Two Brides for Two Brothers, a historical novel based on the life of his grandfather Yerucham and his grandmother, Rivka, a descendant of the Gaon of Vilna (Genius of Vilnius).

A celebration of Meyer’s life is scheduled for 2pm, 27th September at Mortonhall Crematorium, Edinburgh. He is survived by his wife of more than sixty years, Ainslie; children Shaeron, Ralph and Euan; grandchildren Ben, Lola and Sally; sisters Annie and Taube; daughter-in-law Sheila, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that anyone wishing to leave a memorial consider donating in Meyer’s name to Parkinson’s UK.

Do you know what year ZOT moved to East Lothian?

I'm checking this with his successor John Leask, also now retired. I think it was in the late 1970s/early 80s.

And have they always been on roughly the same site where they are now?

Yes. The bulk of the time they have been based in and expanded across Inveresk industrial Estate.

And did your dad presumably retire from the business? What year was that?

Yes. Checking when but I'm fairly sure it was in the early noughties.

And did he sell ZOT?

No. He kept his stake in the business.

And he never lived here but in Joppa?

He lived in Portobello and then Joppa from about 1977. I suspect that move was motivated by being very close to the factory in Musselburgh.

I wanted to let you know I submitted the information below regarding my dad Meyer. He died a few days ago, aged 88. He founded ZOT Engineering in the mid-70s after leaving a then very successful Hewlett Packard in South Queensferry to go it alone in the world of PCB manufacturing. They quickly moved to East Lothian where the company started in an old WWII Nissan Hut and went from strength to strength, moving to Inveresk Industrial Estate and, at one point, being the second largest employer in the county. I believe the bus company was number one at the time.

However, the heyday of Silicon Glen has long passed with most of the contemporary companies of the day defunct and distant memories. Yet, ZOT continues to thrive into the present day and is a significant employer in the county, producing high-tech tooling and multilayer PCB fabrication.