John Nolan, one of Scotland’s longest-serving teachers, has died aged 72.
He had a 51-year teaching career and had planned to return to Dundee High School in the autumn term.
John was passionate about language, German in particular.
His command of the language was so great that Germans believed he was a native speaker.
Language skills apart, he will also be remembered as an inspiring teacher who influenced the lives of countless pupils over the decades.
Messages
His wife, Tricia, said that during his final stay at Queen Margaret Hospice, Dunfermline, he received many cards from former pupils, some written in German.
Throughout the course of his illness, John was comforted by the many messages of thanks and acknowledgments of the inspiration he had been to hundreds of pupils both in Scotland and abroad.
Most of John’s career was spent at St Columba’s High School, Dunfermline, where he was principal teacher of German between 1972 and 2007.
For 20 years he organised an annual German night comprising of a show, then play, with German food being served at the interval.
The whole night was in German because John wanted pupils to understand it was a living language rather than just text book study.
Unusually, John’s love of the German language began as a young pupil in the science class at St Andrew’s High School, Kirkcaldy.
Passion
“He heard scientific terms and words in German and this sparked his interest. I think he liked the sound of the language and it became his absolute passion,” said Tricia.
John Nolan was born in Oakley in August 1949 to John and Angela Nolan.
His father was headteacher at Oakley and John had a twin brother, Kevin, who went on to teach biology, alongside John at St Columba’s High School.
John attended Holy Name School, Oakley, before progressing to high school in Kirkcaldy.
There his innate thirst for knowledge saw him specialise in German and Latin.
Graduation
John was also a debater and cricketer at high school and went on to achieve MA (Hons) in German, Latin and French from Edinburgh University, graduating in 1970.
After teacher training at Moray House, Edinburgh, where he was awarded PGCE and Dip. E. he returned to teach briefly at his old high school before joining the staff of St Columba’s High School.
In 1972, while he was still in his 20s, John was appointed head of department, a post he held for 35 years.
After German was discontinued from the curriculum at St Columba’s, John seized the opportunity in 2007 to teach further afield, working for spells in Macclesfield, Essex, Orkney and at Strathallan School, near Perth.
Dundee
In 2013, he joined the staff of Dundee High School, teaching French and German.
During the pandemic he taught remotely from home and had planned to return to continue teaching after the summer break.
Dundee High School flew its flag at half-mast in honour of John.
Throughout his long career John had set German exams for the SQA, as well as marking them.
Marriage
John and Tricia met by chance in a Dunfermline pub, shared a love of badminton and cycling and married in 1979. They had three of a family, Louise, Liam and Rosaleen, and three grandchildren.
Tricia said: “John had taught me at school years earlier and we got speaking when we bumped into each other in the pub.
“We both enjoyed cycling and badminton, which John was playing well into his 60s.
Friendship
“At university he formed a friendship with Gordon MacLeod which lasted a lifetime, even after he emigrated to Australia in the 1970s.
“Gordon was a massive part of his life and happiness and I know he is disappointed not to be able to come to the funeral.”
Another great love of John’s was walking and one of his legacies will be his book, Twenty Relaxing West Fife Walks.
He felt West Fife was often bypassed by visitors so he would drop off the books at cafes to try to draw walkers to the area.
Over a 30-year period he completed nearly 900 walks, some lengthy like the West Highland Way and Cateran Trail, others shorter.
“Over many years, John took school trips to Germany and organised exchange trips but he was a man who had a passion for the simple things in life like walking and reading.”
Despite the many hours and hundreds of miles spent walking, John also found time to write several volumes of German language fairy-tale plays to be performed in schools, some published by Leckie & Leckie.
Written work
He wrote a history of Holy Name Parish and a light-hearted account of his dozens of Fife bus journeys in his travel memoir Bus Connections A-Z.
A substantial part of his last few years was dedicated to researching and publishing an incisive discussion of the progression and future of the standards of German teaching and exams in Scotland.
“He was also a generous blood donor, who received an award for donating something like 104 pints, as often and for as long as he was able to do so,” said Tricia.
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