Gordon Blair, who had a long career with publishers DC Thomson in Dundee has died aged 68.
He was one of a small army of drivers who started work in the early hours of the morning delivering newspapers to rural areas.
The day would begin around 3am at the company’s Kingsway East printing plant in Dundee when drivers would arrive to collect bundles of copies of The Courier.
For many years, Gordon’s daily round would take him deep into remote parts of Perthshire.
Sporting Post
He would also take turns working at weekends to deliver the Evening Telegraph and Sporting Post to city centre locations, as well as Sunday shifts delivering The Sunday Post.
Gordon was born in Dundee on August 13 1955 to Robert James Nesbitt Blair and his wife, Annie Elizabeth.
He was educated first at Fintry Primary School and then Linlathen High School where he developed a love of football.
Gordon was also passionate about history and a lifelong follower of Glasgow Rangers.
When he left school he trained first as an alarm engineer before going on to hold delivery jobs for a number of bakeries over the years.
In the early 1970s he met his future wife, Lorraine, and the couple married at Dundee registrar’s office in 1977. They went on to have two of a family, Gordon and Kerri.
He then joined DC Thomson where he worked for more than 20 years, mainly from Kingsway East but latterly as a caretaker at the Meadowside headquarters in the city centre from where he retired around 2015.
Leisure time
Gordon went on to have an active retirement. He took up cycling, often covering routes of between 10 and 30 miles.
However, six months ago, Gordon and his family received the dreadful news of a cancer diagnosis.
His son, Gordon, said: “The cancer was in his lung, liver and bladder and it was incurable.
“He battled bravely until the end, but was suffering and in a lot of pain and finally passed in his sleep in the early hours of November 27 2023.”
You can read the family’s announcement here.
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