Obituary: Donald MacDonald MBE - Lifelong Liberal whose contribution to Heriot-Watt University was extensive

AS public relations officer of Heriot-Watt University for more than 20 years, Donald MacDonald had ample opportunity to display his tact and personal warmth. In addition to the positive promotion of the university’s reputation at every opportunity that offered or could be created, his contributions ranged from drafting laureation addresses for the presentation of honorary graduands to fostering the graduates’ association and organising Royal visits, both British and Norwegian.

He took special pleasure in helping to recruit and support students from Norway, and his work in this field was recognised in 1978 when he was presented by King Olav with the St Olav Medal for his services in furthering Scottish-Norwegian understanding. On his retirement in 1995 he was appointed MBE for services to education, and Heriot-Watt University conferred upon him the degree of Master of Letters.

Donald Cameron MacDonald was born in October 1931, the youngest son of Dr Alistair MacDonald, a highly respected and immensely hospitable general practitioner in Elgin. He attended Elgin Academy, and his captaincy of the academy’s winning team in the BBC radio national schools quiz, Top of the Form, was early evidence of his lively mind.

After national service in the Royal Artillery, stationed mainly in Libya, he went up to the University of Aberdeen in 1952 to study English language and literature. There he soon became involved with the Students’ Representative Council and through it with the Scottish Union of Students (SUS), of which he was president in 1955-56.

However, his enthusiastic participation in student politics had an unfortunate result; when it came to his finals he was awarded no degree.

This almost unprecedented contretemps obviously affected his opportunities for employment.

His first recourse was to SUS, and for three years he served as its first full-time general secretary, campaigning successfully for the statutory status of non-university SRCs and for a single student grant-paying body for the whole of Scotland.

Thereafter he held posts with the Educational Institute of Scotland and as manager of publishing companies specialising in the promotion of academic and religious charities. In 1968 he joined the administration of Heriot-Watt University, becoming public relations officer in 1974.

In politics Donald was a lifelong Liberal. In the general election of 1959 he stood in that interest – the first to have done so for 30 years – in the staunchly Conservative constituency of Moray and Nairn and attracted a creditable 22 per cent of the vote.

He was also a keen lover of the theatre and of classical music, especially opera, and was a founder of Heriot-Watt’s Music Society.

During his tenure as president of SUS Donald attended meetings of the International Union of Students at a time when the dominance of communism in eastern Europe was an emotive issue, not least for a Liberal. At a conference in Sofia in 1955 delegates presented him with an Ivan Turgenev novel inscribed with the words: “To our friend Donald MacDonald, who is not always right but, surely, is always pleasant”. He enjoyed controversy, but was not often wrong in his firmly expressed opinions concerning people and events.

Donald never married, but was a dedicated cultivator and maintainer of friendships with men and women all over the world. Many of these enjoyed his generous hospitality in Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, especially during the years when his Festival party was a convivial event each August.

In his 50s he was diagnosed with diabetes, and when he was about 70 he underwent surgery for bowel cancer. In his latter years he was reliant on a hearing aid, and his sight became so poor that he was registered blind. But these handicaps did not diminish his zest for life and companionship.

In September 2011 his cancer made its return evident, and he died ten days after turning 80.

Those fortunate enough to have been among his friends or extended family always knew that whoever else might remember or overlook their birthdays and wedding anniversaries, a carefully chosen card from Donald would not fail to arrive.

They will miss that flow of kindly thoughtfulness and the company of this brave, sociable and warm-hearted man. GORDON MACINTYRE