Gerhard Kuhn, former senior depute director of education for Tayside Regional Council, has died, aged 82.
Mr Kuhn, who lived in Scone with his wife Janet, came to Scotland from his native Germany after the second world war.
He arrived with the intention of staying for just six months but fell in love with the country and made it his home for over 60 years.
Originally from Silesia, now part of the Czech Republic, Mr Kuhn arrived in Scotland in 1949 at the invitation of a teacher friend to take a post as a curative teacher at the Rudolph Steiner Camphill School, near Aberdeen, catering for pupils with complex special needs.
He quickly settled in Scotland and, rather than returning to Germany, he went to Edinburgh University where he gained a BSc in chemistry, physics and mathematics and later a master of education degree.
Mr Kuhn became a British citizen in 1956 and began teaching science at Forfar Academy, where he met his wife, who taught home economics.
In 1963 he was appointed assistant director of education for Perthshire and was later made senior director, a post he held until he gained the position of senior depute director of education for Tayside on the creation of the regional council in 1975.
Serving under renowned educationalist David Robertson, Mr Kuhn balanced his duties on the regional council with service on several national bodies.
He was an assessor on the Scottish Joint Negotiating Committee on teachers’ pay and conditions, a member of the Scottish Education Department working party on school boards and chairman of the SED working group on the supply and training of educational psychologists.
He stayed involved with the Rudolph Steiner organisation through serving on the advisory board of the Corbenic Camphill Community, near Blairgowrie.
Mr Kuhn retired in 1991 at a time when major changes concerning the education service were being considered.
These included slimmed-down education departments with schools being run independently and local government reform.
He expressed concern at the time that many of the service’s achievements could be at risk from the fundamental adjustments being contemplated by the then Conservative Government.
Music was one of his passions, and retirement also gave Mr Kuhn and his wife the time to enjoy the Scottish countryside and travel further afield.
He made several trips to Germany to visit relatives and friends in the Hamburg and Bonn areas, and he also attended reunions of his former school in Silesia.
These events were held throughout Germany to accommodate the former pupils who had moved from their birthplace.
He is survived by his wife and two daughters Isla, a medical science librarian for Cambridge University, and Veronica, who teaches English near Munich and is married to a Bavarian.