Tributes pour in as 'Mr Howe of Fife' Tom Pearson dies at 83

SCOTTISH rugby lost another great servant yesterday with the death of Tom Pearson, known across the country as 'Mr Howe of Fife', after a long illness, aged 83.

Pearson was a wing-forward and scrum-half for the Cupar rugby club and would go on to be captain, coach and president, but it was as an enthusiastic administrator that he became more widely known and respected. David Rollo, who won 40 caps in the front row for Scotland out of Howe of Fife RFC, only started playing rugby at the age of 19 and said yesterday that Pearson was an inspiration.

"He was a great mentor and really was 'Mr Howe of Fife' to me," he said. "He guided me through my career really. In his playing days, when he was captain, everything revolved around him and everyone appreciated how he handled players.

"He always had time to listen to you as a player, and give you his report, without ducking the criticism.

"There were no coaches then and you were made captain because of what you knew about the game, and Tom knew what he was doing.

"He also had great expertise in the sevens game and was a major influence on sport at Buckhaven and developing rugby at the Howe and further afield with his work at the SRU.

"I still remember how he would encourage boys from Buckhaven to come over the hill to the Howe to play, but whatever age they got to they still called him 'Sir, not 'Mr Pearson' and certainly not 'Tom'. He held that respect."

Pearson was elected as the North and Midlands representative on the SRU in 1969 and, after playing a key role in the creation of new coaching models, he took over as the chairman of selectors for the national team and appointed Nairn MacEwan as Scotland coach in 1977.

Jim Telfer, the former Scotland coach and director of rugby, recalled: "Tom was one of the originators of the SRU coaching panel that would establish the first coaching courses nationally and regionally.

"We had a very good coaching advisory panel with a number of PE teachers closely involved, and he was part of the SRU when it appointed the first technical director John Roxburgh.

"Other sports in Scotland went on to copy what that panel had done with the SRU and we had visitors from across the British Isles and Europe coming to the courses. I remember Tom as a hard-working chap who was a stickler for details and high standards."

Ian McLauchlan, the Scotland prop and now SRU president, said: "Tom was our team manager on the tour of Japan in 1977 and he had a big input into the SRU at that time. Tom was a very dedicated rugby man, who served the union very well and an altogether decent lad."

A PE teacher and latterly assistant rector at Buckhaven High School, where he was credited with widening the PE curriculum, Pearson suffered a heart attack in 1980, and stood down from the SRU.He recovered and after retiring in 1985, re-joined the SRU as youth convener and was appointed president in the 1988-89 season.

• Full obituary will appear in tomorrow's Scotsman.