Alistair McPherson Induction and Face to Face Thursday 30 April 2020

19.15 Meeting Thursday 30 April 2020

Alastair McPherson Induction and Face to Face

Despite the current vicissitudes, some 30 members of the Club joined a virtual meeting – courtesy of Zoom – now the norm for the Club’s fortnightly meetings.  In an unusual conjunction, Alastair McPherson was not only inducted into the Club, but also gave his Face to Face: the opportunity for a new member to give some details of his, or her, background.

Introduced by Rotarian Kenneth Murray, Alastair was inducted by President Andrew Hilley.  Welcoming Alastair as a new member, President Andrew remarked that while the circumstances of his induction were unusual, Alastair could be assured of a very warm welcome from members of the Club.

Alastair thanked President Andrew for his welcome.  He said that he had been most impressed by the friendly welcome from the Club. He and his wife, Jenny, had agreed that in retirement they wanted to find activities to which they could give time and energy.

Introducing his Face to Face, Alastair said that his early life had been on the west coast of Scotland.  He attended Ayr Academy, going from there to the Army’s Welbeck College, from which he was commissioned in 1974 by Princess Anne.  Then followed a career in the Army focusing on the maintenance and supply of a wide variety of major military equipment ranging across tanks, guided weapons and helicopters.  The challenges of this work involved postings to many locations, including Germany, Paris, the Gulf war, and Northern Ireland, with promotion to higher ranks bringing greater responsibility for procurement of multi-billion equipment programmes.

Alastair left the Army in 1998 without a specific new career path in view.  Shortly afterwards, however, he answered an advertisement for a project manager for an international effort that would ultimately build the world’s largest radio telescope. His initial engagement was to build a 40 metre telescope in Chile. Eventually, however the plan is that the project will create over a square kilometre (one million square metres) of radio telescopes used to collect radio signals from space. There will be two main sites, one in Australia, the other in South Africa. 

At 65, Alastair decided that he now had the opportunity to spend more time on his own interests.  Deciding to live in Dunblane, he quickly became involved with the Loch Venachar Sailing Club, of which he is now a Trustee.  Another significant time involvement is as a Reader in the Church of Scotland with a focus on Dunblane Cathedral.

President Andrew thanked Alastair for an interesting account of his career and extended his best wishes for a very positive involvement in the Club.