A retired Dundee University lecturer who trained many of the city’s lawyers has died at the age of 78.
Jim Robertson or JJ as he was known to generations of students joined the law department in 1964, one of only six members of staff at the time.
A gifted academic, he was one of the country’s foremost experts in Roman law. As well as lecturing, he carried out extensive research in the Vatican archives, where he was regarded as a scholar of international standing.
He was also president of the Friends of Dundee City Archives for many years.
Born in Dumfries, Mr Robertson graduated MA LLB from St Andrews University, before entering private practice. He did his national service in the navy but never saw the sea with his legal background being put to more use on land than his seafaring skills.
For several years he was warden of Peterson House, where he and his wife Anne looked after countless students.
Among his former students is Kevin Veal, now sheriff in Forfar, who paid tribute to Mr Robertson.GenerousHe said, “Jim was a popular lecturer and tutor who very clearly had a total grasp of his subject. He took a great personal interest in his students and their welfare, and he and Anne were generous hosts, welcoming his students to their home.
“With staff changes Jim took on in subsequent years responsibility for the teaching of Roman law, many aspects of Scots private law and property law.
“In addition to his legal and academic life Jim and Anne had a long and happy connection with St Andrew’s Cathedral, Dundee, where they were faithful and weekly worshippers.
“Jim was an outstanding authority on the many Roman archaeological sites in Tayside and Fife and, indeed, throughout Scotland.
“On many occasions he was instrumental in leading groups to the myriad pre-Reformation church sites and ruins in Tayside and Fife and his knowledge of the local Christian heritage in this area was unsurpassed.
“His great skill was to share his enthusiasm and knowledge with his ‘fellow pilgrims,’ as he called them.
“He had a great love of classical music and particularly early Scottish and Italian music. This interest was fostered in his student days at St Andrews, when he sang in the university choir under Cedric Thorpe Davie.
“He was also proud to have been able to sing on one occasion in his student days under the baton of the legendary Gerald Finzi.Highlight”In his latter years he joined the ranks of the Cecilian Choir in Dundee, where he was a popular attender. In 2009, when the choir travelled to and sang in Rome, it was through his initiative and suggestion that the trip included a visit and opportunity to sing in the ancient Abbey of St Scholastica south of Rome, a real highlight of the choir’s trip.
“The many other expeditions that he led to Rome over the years gave him the greatest pleasure and these always memorable trips made a deep and lasting impression on those of us privileged to travel with him and gain the benefit of his vast knowledge.
“He will be remembered with great affection by those many people like myself with whom he came into contact over the years and whose lives he touched in what was always a positive way.”
Robin White, an honorary research fellow at Dundee University and former law lecturer there, is another former student of Mr Robertson’s.
“Jim had the reputation for being the most enthusiastic teacher ever and jabber of pipe stems and fixer with beady eye,” he said. “If anybody sought a single adjective to describe him it would be ‘enthusiastic’.
“I last had lunch with him nearly a year ago now and his personality was unchanged in 50 years. He was always very involved with students, holding court on the lawn outside the old union building in the summer. He was a great teacher.”
Mr Robertson is survived by his wife of 52 years Anne, sons Chris and Andrew, daughter Catriona, six grandchildren and his brother Gordon.
A requiem mass for him will take place on Thursday in St Andrew’s Cathedral.