The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Keen sportsman and former journalist Jim Rougvie
Former journalist James (Jim) Rougvie has died at his home in Fife.
Born on June 11 1949 in St Andrews to James and Anne Rougvie, he grew up in Thornton with a gift for mischief and attended Kirkcaldy High School with brothers Alex and Scott.
He began his career in journalism with DC Thomson as a reporter with The Courier in Dunfermline then moved to Kirkcaldy. He married in 1973 to Elizabeth Morley-Hill, with whom he 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 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. A flare for writing and known for his knack for 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 paper in the early ’80s 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, among other stories, the Piper Alpha tragedy and the subsequent inquiry, the Timex dispute and the tragic events at Dunblane.
He moved to Wormit in 1991 and married Eileen Hunter in 1993, whom he had met on a blind date.
His career took him from the Scotsman to the world of freelance journalism with Dundee Press Agency before returning to The Courier until his retirement.
He had been left heartbroken by the death of Eileen from cancer in 2005.
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 Scottish Natural Heritage at Tentsmuir Forest, near Tayport.
Jim died at home in Wormit after a spell of ill-health.