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Alumni News
Tributes
Mr. David A. Shepherd 1930 – 2019 Class of 1947
Dr. Ian J. Lawrenson 1933 – 2020 Class of 1951
David Shepherd was born in Dundee on 28th February 1930, the youngest of Andrew Inglis and Marjorie Shepherd’s four children. Educated at Dundee High School, Mill Hill in London and St Bees in Cumberland (during the war years), David spent his National Service as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in the New Territories in Hong Kong.
Ian was born in Dundee on 13th June 1933 to Marion and Thomas Lawrenson. Thomas was an artist with DC Thomson for his whole working career and also a keen amateur cine-photographer, with Ian being the childhood star in three of his father’s films which won awards around the world, including in the UK, Tokyo and Hollywood.
Graduating with a BSc degree in Estate Management at the University of London in 1952, David then took up a junior partnership in the chartered surveying and factoring practice J&E Shepherd, Dundee.
Enrolling at the School in 1938, in time for its 700th anniversary, Ian excelled academically finishing as Dux and being awarded the School’s Harris Gold Medal, as well as prizes for science and mathematics.
Taking the reins in 1970 from his late partner Fred Henderson, David opened the firm’s first sub-office in Aberdeen in 1973, at the beginning of the North Sea oil boom. By the time of his retirement in 1995, the firm had 13 partners and 40 chartered surveyors and 13 other offices across the country – from Inverness to Dumfries.
He won a Harkness Scholarship to St Andrews University, where he read Natural Philosophy (Physics), graduating with a First Class honours degree in 1955, and securing medals in Physics and Mathematics.
David was also Chairman of the Northern Housing Company until 1996, an independent charity which owned and managed over 400 affordable homes in Dundee and Perth. He also held a seat on the Lands Tribunal of Scotland and sat on the Tayside Building Preservation Trust. As a Former Pupil, David was devoted to Dundee High School, serving on the Board of Governors until 2000, first as Finance Convenor, then as Chairman; a role through which he motivated both staff and pupils to uphold the ethics of the School, an interest he maintained well beyond the period of his official involvement. He was also a Justice of the Peace in Dundee around this time.
In 1958, he was awarded a PhD for a thesis on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in Solid Hydrocarbons, supported by a Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship as one of the first researchers in the field. From 1958 to 1960, Ian was employed in the USA as a Research Associate in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois, working on magnetic resonance, before securing a post in the UK National Chemical Laboratory at Teddington. In 1961, he met Carolyn Webb, from Sydney, Australia, and they were married in 1963 in the chapel of St Andrews University, before settling down in Walton-on-Thames.
David touched many people’s lives with his warm friendship and waspish dry wit; inspiring and giving support to many in business and enterprise. He took a close and often sceptical interest in political events, right up until the end of his days.
A little later in life, Ian moved to the Department of Trade and Industry in London, to act as the Technical Aide to the Chief Government Scientist and Engineer, Dr. Duncan Davies. He also became a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and Chairman of Euromar, a pan-European body concerned with marine technology.
But work and public appointments were just part of his life. A devoted husband and family man, life for David was for living, having fun and even taking the odd risk, for example completing the Cresta Run in St Moritz at age 60!
In 1991, Ian was honoured with an OBE for his services to the UK Government and retired from the DTI in 1993, before taking up the post of Secretary to the Hazards Forum and becoming editor of its journal. He was later elected a life member of the Forum.
An intrepid skier in the early days at Glenshee, a determined hillwalker (with 200 Munros under his boots) he played tennis, built treehouses and hung rope swings, swam daily and water skied. Golf was also a great passion. He and his wife, Irene, played golf in clubs all over the world, travelling widely together in the Bahamas, USA, Australia and Southern Africa.
He and his wife were involved in a number of local activities in Walton, in particular the Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre, where he was the first Chairman. In his spare time, Ian gained an Open University BA degree in Arts, and was an enthusiastic maker of model boats.
Diagnosed with terminal cancer in late summer, David passed away peacefully at Cornhill Hospice in Perth on Friday 13th December 2019. He is survived and is sorely missed by Irene, his beloved wife of over 60 years; plus their 5 children and 8 grandchildren, for whom he was always and will remain a beacon of inspiration.
Ian was very supportive of the activities and careers of his son, Andrew, a computer scientist and author of a series of science fiction books, and his daughter, Dr. Jane Hoyle, a geneticist. He was predeceased by his wife in 2018 and is survived by his two children and five grandchildren – Daniel, Christopher, Benjamin, Jasmine and Max.
