Diana Scott, who played a significant role in business and civic life in Blairgowrie, has died aged 83.
Together with her husband, Arnold, and family, she helped develop the Angus Hotel from the five-bedroom establishment it had been in the 1950s to the 90-bedroom hotel it is today.
She was also a director of other companies in the family’s business portfolio including Ardblair Sports Importers Ltd and DAMECK Holdings Ltd.
Diana, originally from Glasgow, came to love Blairgowrie where she served a term as chair of Blairgowrie Ladies Circle and Blairgowrie High School PTA.
She was born in March 1940 to David Law, a superintendent of clinics in Glasgow and his wife Margaret, and grew up with older siblings, Jim and Rita.
Diana was educated at Calder Street Primary School, then Uddingston Grammar where she was the only girl in her physics class.
When she left school, she studied at Glasgow College of Domestic Science and qualified as a dietician. During summer breaks she worked in Brighton, in a canning factory in Dundee, and travelled solo to Barcelona by train in 1958 to an international student conference.
Diana began work as a senior dietician at Bridge of Earn Hospital and was about to take up a post in Dubai when she met her future husband, Arnold, around Christmas 1965.
They got engaged in May 1966, married in October 1966 and went on to have four of a family: Murray, Craig, Ewan, Kirsten, and, in time, nine grandchildren: Gregor, Kitty, Lachlan, Rose, Brodie, Bea, Olivia, Iris and Ellen.
Arnold’s family had bought the Angus Hotel in 1957, which was initially run by his parents and then by his brother, Andrew, while Arnold ran the family supermarket.
However, when Andrew died tragically in 1966, Diana and Arnold took on the running of the hotel.
Family enterprise
It was there the couple began married life, started a family and continued to run the hotel, among other family businesses, until three of their children joined the companies, working with their parents until they retired 22 years ago.
Diana had great skill in needlework, making curtains for the hotel early on as well as family homes, and could cook to a professional standard.
She was said to have a great eye for detail, had played bridge for 50 years and was an avid tennis and snooker fan who visited Wimbledon many times.
After leaving Blairgowrie Ladies Circle she moved on to the Tangent Club and also had a spell serving on the Children’s Panel.
Travel
Throughout their married life, Diana and Arnold were adventurous travellers who enjoyed European camping holidays and skiing with their young family, cruises and longer trips to the likes of Singapore, Panama and Egypt in later years.
Her daughter, Kirsten Ryan, said: “Family was everything to my mum but she was also a loyal friend enjoying many friendships for almost 60 years. She was thoughtful, supportive, intelligent – a very capable woman – and happy to hold her own if required.
“She was elegant and chic and effortlessly stylish without needing to be all the time. Usually seen with a smile on her face she was a very happy person particularly so in recent times.”
You can read the family’s announcement here.