The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Ron Ross, veteran former junior football official
Ron Ross, who served more than half a century as a junior football official in Fife, has died aged 89.
He was secretary of Fife juniors from 1969 until 2002 and continued his involvement with the game until 2011 as secretary of Fife and Lothian Cup.
Family and football were his two great loves, said his son, Kenneth, and the highlight of his time in the game was when his beloved Lochgelly Albert lifted the Drybrough Cup in 1974.
He also witnessed Glenrothes win the Scottish Junior Cup in 1974-75 and Hill of Beath in 1989-90.
Ron’s father Robert had been on the committee of Lochgelly Albert and Ron began attending games in 1946.
His devotion was always to the junior game and he never followed a senior side, even though he had been friends with many senior players in Fife as a young man.
Ron was born in Kirkcaldy, the only child of Robert and Dolina Ross, and grew up in Lochgelly.
His father, a joiner, had moved to Fife from Easter Ross for work, while his mother came from Ullapool.
Ron was educated at Lochgelly East School before starting work as a clerk in a solicitor’s office in Dunfermline.
His national service was spent with the RAF in Norfolk and when he returned home, he began a civil service career at RAF Pitreavie which was to last for 40 years.
In 1962, Ron met his future wife, Margaret, at a dance in Dunfermline.
She worked in the cafe but managed to fit in some dancing during her breaks.
The couple married in Dunfermline that year and went on to have two of a family, Kenneth and Derek.
Kenneth said: “Football and family were his life although he did take an interest in the history of the RAF.
“Over many years he also reported on junior football matches, filing reports for the Sporting Post in Dundee, the Sunday Post and the Edinburgh and Glasgow papers.
“I think perhaps his proudest moment in football was when Lochgelly went to Shettleston in the 1973/74 season and won the juniors Drybrough Cup.”