PROFESSOR JAMES Paul, the former long-serving head of Duncan of Jordanstone’s School of Architecture and a well-known figure in Dundee, has died at 79 after a long illness.

Professor Paul was a major influence on architectural practice and design in Dundee and the north-east of Scotland.

Many local buildings bear the hallmark of his creativity, including Duncan of Jordanstone’s Matthew Building, completed in 1974, and the early 1990s redevelopment of Tannadice Park.

He was born in Toronto in 1929 but returned with his parents to Scotland in 1930, spent his early years in Portsoy and Gamrie and was educated at Banff Academy and the School of Architecture in Aberdeen.

After studying town planning at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow, he joined the corporation of the City of London where he helped efforts to rebuild the bomb-damaged city.

He joined the Duncan of Jordanstone School of Architecture as a lecturer in 1956, became a senior lecturer in 1959 and in 1965, aged 35, was appointed head of the school of architecture, one of the youngest people in the country to hold such a position.

He was made a professor of architecture in 1983 and retired in 1994. He also pursued a career in architectural private practice in Dundee, beginning in 1957.

Predeceased by his son Kenneth, he is survived by his wife of 54 years Elizabeth, sons Angus, Roddy and Graeme, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.