When Joe McFalls was growing up in Lochee, he foresaw a path that would lead to a career as a slater.
The lad from Logie Street apparently had a head for heights and a willingness to work hard and would no doubt have succeeded had that profession been his future.
Instead, he set out on a path that led him into war zones and then the highest levels of the American political and legal systems, rubbing shoulders with four US presidents and the country’s most senior judges.
He flew on Air Force One, acting as an aide to JFK and Lyndon Johnson on the “Big Bird”, and accompanying the controversial defence secretary Robert McNamara and his staff when they flew into Vietnam.
Mr McFalls also rubbed shoulders with then vice-presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, King Hussien of Jordan and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
He finally retired from the US Air Force after 27 years’ active duty to work as catering manager at the US Supreme Court in Washington DC.
It is now two years since Mr McFalls died in his adopted country, but his wife Gloria will soon help him to return to his home city, bringing his ashes from their home in Florida to Dundee.
Nephew Iain McFalls said it would be a poignant moment for everyone who knew Mr McFalls.
“It’s a couple of years now since my uncle died in Florida and his wife Gloria wants to return his ashes to his home city.
“He was a very proud Dundonian and a proud Scotsman and his ashes will be scattered on the River Tay, as he wishes, after a memorial mass at St Mary’s on September 18.”
Among those present will be Mr McFall’s grand-nephews Ciaran McFalls and Euan McFalls who is, himself, a Flying Officer with the RAF at Lossiemouth.
Drafted into the Royal Navy in 1943, Joe McFalls emigrated to the US in 1949, joining the USAF the following year and setting him on the path to an incredible career.
Within 12 months he was running a crash rescue boat as part of clandestine operations behind the 38th Parallel, off the coast of Korea.
When Palm Beach airforce base closed in 1957, he transferred to Washington National Airport HQ with Special Air Missions, home to Air Force One.
For years he flew the length and breadth of the US and around the world as part of its crew with US presidents and to Vietnam with Robert McNamara.
His retirement from the USAF brought only a change of workplace, not a change of pace, spending the next 11 years at the US Supreme Court before retiring for good in 1989.
Outside of work, he was a key member of the Highlanders Pipe Band proud as ever of his Scottish roots.