Former Scottish amateur boxing champion and internationalist Dennis Gilfeather has died suddenly in Bali, aged 76.
Mr Gilfeather had been visiting two of his sons, Dennis and Danny, when he suffered a stroke and he slipped into a coma from which he did not recover.
Part of a family of boxers from Lochee in Dundee, he had shone as a youth champion before collecting a string of district titles and, in front of a 2,000-strong audience in St Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, he won the Scottish light-welterweight (10st) championship in 1960.
Mr Gilfeather, who spent all of his working life with NCR, latterly as a supervisor, represented Scotland on a number of occasions at home and abroad and famously lost a close split decision to the 1960 Olympic champion, Bohumil Nemecek, in Prague.
As a physical training instructor while doing his national service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) in the late 1950s, he became a key member of the British Army boxing team at a time when, because of conscription, it featured the cream of UK amateur boxing.
After retiring from the fight game in the early 1960s, he started his own club, Camperdown ABC, based in Lochee, and became one of the world’s leading judges and referees.
He was the man in the middle in two of the finals in the 1972 Munich Olympics. Indeed, his services as a referee were in great demand throughout Europe.
He was proud of the long list of champions produced by the Camperdown club, set within the grounds of Thompson Park, the home of Lochee United Junior Football Club. They included Stewart Ogilvie and Jim Douglas, both winners of ABA (British) championships.
Speaking on behalf of the family, his brother, Frank, spoke of Mr Gilfeather’s unswerving dedication to amateur boxing over many decades.
“Setting up and running a boxing club for so many years meant that many boys and young men from working-class backgrounds were given opportunities to improve themselves, whether or not they became serious about the sport,” he said.
“Dennis gave himself to this aspect of boxing and will be remembered as a leader with a laid-back approach to life and it’s problems and one who encouraged others to give of their best.”
Pre-deceased by his wife Sybil, Mr Gilfeather, a popular member of Alyth Golf Club, is survived by his four children Tony, Dennis, Danny and Angie, and a number of grandchildren.
He was particularly close to his last, six-year-old Ruaidh.
A memorial mass will be held for Mr Gilfeather in due course.