Elgin was a teacher, he began his career at Kenora High School in 1930 where he taught science, apparently embryo and zoology mostly for the next 26 years.  His wife Florence was from Kenora and they had no children.  They had a Swiss Alpine style two storey log cabin on nearby Middle Island, Lake of the Woods.  Before retirement, each summer was said to be spennt travelling Canada, the United States and Mexico.  For six summers in the 1950's he undertook training Canadian Army Cadets in wilderness survival.

About 1956 they left Kenora for other parts of Ontario where he continued teaching, retiring June 30th, 1965 at Lively near Sudbury.  It was here that his wife died in 1962.  They had retained their cabin at the Lake of the Woods and on retirement he returned to Kenora, this time to spend summers there and travel during the other months.  In fact, he built up a reputation as a renowned world traveller.  It is reported that in the last ten years of his life, he spent 1,765 days travelling, with three trips around the world and he is said to have walked in 113 foreign countries, as well as every Canadian province and every state in the US.  He apparently had a great interest in visiting museums, art galleries and botanical gardens and made friends everywhere.  The year of his death, which occurred in Hawaii, he had planned a trip to Hong Kong, Singapore and a voyage along the coast of Norway.  Elgin was cremated in Hawaii.

Al Kirkwood has in his file born 1907 and died 1984 in Kenora.