Noted journalist andsportsman dies at 67

Well-known journalist and sportsman Jim Rougvie has died at the age of 67.

Born in St Andrews, Jim was the second of three sons. He grew up in Thornton and attended Kirkcaldy High School.

Jim began his career in journalism with DC Thomson as a reporter with the Courier in Dunfermline then moved to Kirkcaldy.

He married his first wife, Liz, in 1973, and the couple had two children, Charlotte and Nick.

A talented athlete and footballer in his youth, Jim played for Thornton Hibs and Cupar Hearts and had weighed up the option of a professional football career, having had trials as a teenager with Aberdeen FC.

The football world’s loss was journalism’s gain, however, and many a young reporter can tell of being steered by his hand as they started their own careers.

With a flair for writing and a knack of sniffing out a story, Jim was recognised as having a rare aptitude for news reporting.

He possessed legendary shorthand and would spin a yarn of having made Pitman’s famously quick methods even quicker.

He moved to the Cupar office of the Courier in 1977 then to Dundee in 1979 before moving away from the Courier in the early eighties to take up the role of Tayside reporter for the Scotsman, where he spent 20 years covering Tayside, Fife and further afield.

In his career he covered, amongst others, the Piper Alpha tragedy and the subsequent inquiry, the Timex dispute and the tragic events at Dunblane.

By now divorced, in 1991 he moved to Wormit and married Eileen Hunter in 1993. Eileen died of cancer some 12 years later, leaving him heartbroken.

His career took him from the Scotsman to the world of freelance journalism with the Dundee Press Agency before returning to the Courier until his retiral.

In retirement he was a regular on the golf courses at St Andrews and took delight, and no small measure of pride, in inviting many tourists to join the ‘locals’ for a game and guide them through their round on the windswept links.

Always a keen lover of nature, he spent the last few years volunteering with the Scottish Natural Heritage at Tentsmuir Forest, near Tayport.

Jim died at home in Wormit after a spell of ill-health. He is survived by his brothers, Alex and Scott, daughter Charlotte, son Nick and three grandchildren.