The Rev Dr Harry Gibson, former minister of St David’s High Kirk in Dundee, died at Ninewells Hospital. He was 78.
Raised in Overton, Wishaw, and educated at Hamilton Academy, he pursued what was, for the time, a traditional pathway into the Kirk by graduating Master of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity from Glasgow University.
Later in life, he would go on to earn a doctorate in philosophy from St Andrews University.
After serving as the senior ordained assistant to Dr Nevil Davidson, minister at Glasgow Cathedral, Dr Gibson travelled to Carmunnock where he worked for 10 years.
It was during this time that he frequently worked as a hospital chaplain at Philliphills Orthopaedic Unit.
In 1971 he was transferred to Aberfeldy linked with Amulree, and met the woman who would become his wife, Dr Anne Gibson, who was working as the local GP.
He worked for 20 years at St David’s High Kirk in Dundee, including a decade as the chairman of Heartstart Discovery and was instrumental as the driving force of that organisation in its early days.
Upon his retirement, Dr Gibson moved to the Presbytery of St Andrews where he served as Interim Moderator and Locum Tenens in several vacancies.
Keith Hall, minister at Dundee St Mary’s Church, paid tribute, saying: “Thoughtful, articulate, expressive in every pulpit utterance, caring, compassionate and full of the milk of human kindness as a pastor, Harry reflected the human face of the Kirk.”
Dr Gibson is survived by his wife, son Andrew and daughter-in-law Heidi, grandchildren Adam and Isla and his sister Amy.