The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Alan Ruthven ‘lives on’
Young’s had a factory in Boddam near Peterhead, so they moved there, where Alan worked as a qualitycontrol manager.
Much to Alan’s consternation there was nowhere to play rugby.
When he settled and met like-minded people, he founded Peterhead Rugby Club.
Their first game as a club
was in April 1983 against RAF Buchan, who only just beat them.
Ann said: “He really wasn’t supposed to be playing as he was 45 – just supposed to help get together the team. He stepped in one week and was still playing for the next 20 years.”
Alan helped coach the main team and the Colts (Under-18s). He also played for Aberdeen Strollers Over-35s.
Alan’s other passion was his garden and keeping bees. He was a familiar face behind the bar of Buchanhaven Hearts Football Club at the weekends and when he retired in 2003, boredom saw him take on a job as hospital porter in Fraserburgh, Peterhead and Maud hospitals.
In later life, Alan and Shirley moved to St Monans in Fife where Alan helped establish a resident’s association in their sheltered housing complex, Abercrombie Court, and was a regular at the Mayview Hotel next door. They then moved into Anstruther, but Shirley needed more specialist dementia care so the couple had to live separately.
Alan caught Covid in the first week of the first lockdown and while the family were told to prepare for the worst, he bounced back.
At 83, however, he had a pacemaker fitted after a small heart attack. A decision was made to move him closer to family in Banff.
Sadly just days after returning to the north-east he passed away suddenly but peacefully.
As well as Peterhead Rugby Club, Ann believes one of his greatest legacies will be the club’s women’s team. “He was so well known, so well thought of. We’re still coming to terms with it but his legacy most certainly lives on,” she said.
Alan is survived by Ann and her partner, his sister Edna, grandson Rowan and step-granddaughter Emily.