FORMER BROADCASTER and Courier columnist Ron Thompson died last night after a long illness.

Ron (74) began his journalistic career in newspapers but made his mark in front of the camera at Grampian Television, where his relaxed but authoritative interviewing style was a feature of the company’s broadcasts for a quarter of a century.

A Dundonian born and bred, Ron gained his early experience of journalism with D. C. Thomson & Co Ltd as a reporter with The Courier and Evening Telegraph.

His career turned full circle in 1991 when he began his weekly column in The Courier, drawing on his long experience to deliver prose that was insightful and humorous—but not without the occasional barb.

Ron left Grove Academy at the age of 14, working for seven years as a clerk in a jute office. However, in 1950, the lure of journalism proved too strong and he successfully persuaded D. C. Thomson & Co Ltd to hire him as a trainee reporter on a probationary basis.

Four years later, he moved to the now- defunct Bulletin in Glasgow and then became Scottish political correspondent on the former Daily Herald.

Faced with the choice of moving to Fleet Street with the Herald or returning to Dundee, Ron plumped for the latter, working for the Sunday Mail for three years before becoming staff man for the Sunday Express.

His break into broadcasting came in 1965 when he joined Grampian, spearheading their Tayside news team at the company’s new Dundee office in Marketgait beneath the former Angus Hotel. Grampian TV later moved their studios to West Ferry.

His quiet, considered approach masked a sharp questioning style used to good effect in interviews with three serving prime ministers—Harold Wilson, Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher—the president of Pakistan and actor Peter Ustinov, among a host of famous faces.

In his 25-year career with Grampian, he also toured Ulster with the Marines and covered countless local stories where his relaxed but probing manner encouraged ordinary people to say more than they might otherwise have planned.

For a while, these street items were his stock in trade, causing him to remark, “Dundonians are so uninhibited and, like Glasgow folk, totally honest.

“They tell you exactly what they think.”

He was named Grampian Television Personality of the Year in 1969.

Ron’s experiences in front of the camera formed the basis for the book Never A Dull Moment. He also helped Dundee inventor Sandy Kydd pen Beyond 2001, an account of the amateur physicist’s attempt to develop an anti-gravity device, and teamed up with artist Doug Phillips in 1993 to produce the book, Dundee The Way It Was…A City Made Of Memories, with a further series of titles following a similar theme.

He later wrote Easel In The Field, a tribute to his friend the artist James McIntosh Patrick.

Ron, an elder of St Aidan’s Church, Broughty Ferry, was also a frequent contributor to the Scots Magazine. When not engaged in journalistic pursuits, he was a movie buff and cricket enthusiast.

Married to Mima in 1953, Ron was awarded the MBE in 1991 for services to broadcasting. That same year marked, officially at least, his retirement but it was also the start of his much-loved columns in The Courier.

He continued to submit his weekly column copy until just a few weeks before his death, an unbroken run lasting almost 13 years.

Ron is survived by Mima and their son Alastair.