Ronald N Armstrong, former deputy director of the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum (SCCC), has died at the age of 72.
The SCCC was a forerunner of Learning and Teaching Scotland and was sited in the Northern College’s Gardyne campus, now part of Dundee College.
A much-admired figure in education, Mr Armstrong was a primary school teacher and head teacher in several schools in the West of Scotland, and a lecturer at Jordanhill College.
He was initially seconded to the SCCC for two years, and went on to become national development officer for environmental studies.
Joining the permanent SCCC staff as deputy director took him regularly to Glasgow and Edinburgh before offices were opened in Dundee, to which he travelled from his home in Dumbarton.
Born in wartime, he contracted TB, which resulted in a long stay in hospital followed by nursing at home, which he used to forge a passion for reading.
He successfully negotiated Scottish history and literature, and graduated from Glasgow University. Finding no shortage of fields for his talents, he gave half a century to his great love Dumbarton People’s Theatre of which he was president from 1985.
He excelled as actor, producer and writer, and was a guiding force and mentor to many who benefited from his generous character.
He also gave time and effort to football, commenting on matches for hospital radio.
He was involved in the Quality of Life Experiment in the mid-1970s, and served on the advisory committee on Children’s Panels.
He was an active member of Dumbarton Burns Club, the Nomads Club and the Neil Munro Society.
The society was brought into existence by his friend, the late Brian Osborne, with whom he formed a writing partnership that produced several annotated collections of Neil Munro’s humorous works.
They also produced two plays performed at St Andrews and Perth, and anthologies covering Glasgow, the Clyde, sport, the sea and crime.
He is survived by his wife Anne, their son Andrew and daughter Judith, and by grandchildren.