Professor Ewan Brown CBE FRSE

MA 1963, LLB 1964

Senior Governor, University Court

Christine, my girlfriend, was due to graduate MA in St Andrews on 23 June 1964 and, despite pleading with the authorities, I had not been able to get a ticket for the Younger Hall. Only two tickets per graduand was the rule and they went to her parents. What I had were an engagement ring and a determination to propose to her as soon as she had been capped. My solution - the only romantic thing I have ever done - was to climb a drain-pipe, squeeze through a window into a ladies' toilet and position myself on the stairs down from the platform. It is fair to say that Christine was extremely surprised to see me and continues to this day to say that I was taking unfair advantage of the situation by asking for an immediate reply where, if she had hesitated at all, she would have lost her place in the carefully orchestrated order and caused minor chaos to those handing out the scrolls.

I was not thrown out of the Hall, but neither was I invited to stay. Rather, I was gently escorted to the door and politely discouraged from re-entering. I didn't need to; it was mission accomplished, she had accepted my proposal, we got married two years later (in reality, things moved quite slowly in the 60s) and are still going strong with two children and four grandchildren.

Malcolm Sealy

MA English and Spanish, 1952

Having been at school in London during the Blitz followed by three years' service with the RAF spent mostly in Ceylon, St Andrews meant little to me in those days. Fortunately, my fellow airman was Euan Galbraith who suggested that we apply to St Andrews and obtain ex-Serviceman's grants. Our academic careers started in October 1948 - a few months after demobilisation.

I had intended to follow a French and Spanish course but after re-sits and a dressing-down from 'Johnny' Wright I gambled on three years more without annual exams until Honours in English and Spanish.

Elected as Bejant (male first year) member of the Union, I became President in 1951. I enjoyed the Kate Kennedy Processions and continue as a Life Member of the Club - it was not elitist in those days. I was involved in the campaign to elect Lord Burghley as Rector.

The happenings at the Younger Hall on the nights of the Student Ball are beyond belief in these politically correct days. We even managed to introduce a donkey on one occasion. Charities Days remind me of visits to Kirkcaldy pubs where the generosity of the miners was unforgettable.

My mind often wanders around events and places - smuggling in Bejantines (female first years) to the Central Bar, the Sunday morning 'hangover' walk on the pier, the climb up St Rule's Tower, the Saturday night hops in the Union, Blyth Webster's English lectures and the wit and kindnesses of 'Ferdy' Woodward and Douglas Gifford, playing golf on the Old Course by moonlight - I wonder now how we fitted it all in during those four years. I graduated in 1952 in the same month in which I acted as pall-bearer to Sir James Irvine at his funeral.

Later that year, after a spell at the Cupar sugar-beet factory, I was recruited by ICI Paints Division and subsequently enjoyed being the first sales manager to make the breakthrough in promoting Dulux Decorative paints to the retail market. Later on, I travelled the world as Export Manager from Finland to Tokyo, to the USA and the Middle East. I took early retirement in 1979 and became an independent marketing consultant until ending my sales pitch three years ago.

It is a happy chance that in coming to Australia I discovered that I was following in the footsteps of another University of St Andrews graduate, Alexander Berry. Born on St Andrew's Day in 1781, Alexander Berry studied medicine before establishing the first European settlement on the south coast of New South Wales, now known as Berry. His other lasting legacy is the Berry Chair of English Literature, which continues thanks to a bequest made to the University of St Andrews in his brother's will. I now live in Berry and Alexander Berry's living legacy has allowed me to keep up my connections with the University. On St Andrew's Day 2009, a commemorative bronze bust was installed in Berry, to honour his achievements. I am also in course of re-writing my original book on this great benefactor of our University under the title of Alexander Berry - The Mercantile Adventurer of Fife. I hope to have it published to coincide with the sexcentenary of
'The college of the scarlet gown, St. Andrews by the Northern Sea, That is a haunted town to me.'

Dr Alex Fleming

MA Political Economy 1971, Honorary LLD 1999

Emeritus Trustee, University of St Andrews American Foundation

My story began in 1967.  I had not initially considered going to St Andrews because it was so far away from my home in Buckinghamshire.  But strong Scottish family ties and fate permitted me to succeed in a last minute application.  That decision undoubtedly altered the entire path of my life.

My first year was dominated by 'bunk' life in North Street and a nosey landlady who took pleasure from reading my incoming letters (although she kindly let me read them first!).  I hung on to my place at the University by just scraping past my compulsory General Logic and Metaphysics class.  But that was accompanied by my first academic success when I was awarded the General Class Medal in Political Economy by the renowned Professor Nisbet.  Every year he attracted much attention, and a fair amount of ire in some quarters, for a series of lectures in which he trashed the economics of Karl Marx.

After a very happy three years, during which I made some life-long friends, I graduated in 1971 with a degree in Political Economy.  Straight after graduation I took a position at the Bank of England in London.  A special opportunity opened up for me during the academic year 1975-6 when I took leave from the Bank and returned to St Andrews to take up a temporary lectureship in the Department of Economics.   I returned to the Bank at the end of the year but not without finding my wife-to-be (Susan Stout).  See a current photo of the two of us attached (taken outside the White House).

I left the Bank of England in 1980 for the World Bank in Washington DC, where I began a 28-year career that allowed me to work in much of the developing world.  I re-established my links with St Andrews through John Henderson (by coincidence a close neighbour in Washington) who had graduated from, and taught at, St Andrews much like myself, but about 20 years earlier. He became first President of the University's American Foundation which raises funds for St Andrews from alumni and other sources in the USA.  I became Treasurer before subsequently taking over from John as President, a position I held for some 15 years.  In recognition of my work for the University, I was awarded an Honorary LLD in 1999.  This was undoubtedly one of the proudest moments of my life.

Susan and I still love St Andrews and have bought a retirement property in Crail.  St Andrews is as magical a place to me today as it was when I first set eyes on it over 40 years ago.

Dr Greg Michaelson

MSc Computational Science 1982

I joined St Andrews in 1974 as a postgraduate student in Computational Science. I had been an undergraduate at Essex in the early 1970s when student politics were still pretty radical in the wake of 1968. In comparison, St Andrews seemed curiously conservative. I recall my first day as a demonstrator in the Computer Laboratory on the North Haugh, confronting a wall of red gowns masking what were then ultra-modern Visual Display Units connected to a beefy IBM 360-44. I also recall shivering on an utterly hopeless picket of a winter torch-lit pier walk, demonstrating against student elitism.

St Andrews was also markedly Conservative, if not solidly Unionist. The student left was small and divided, with at least five different Socialist and three feminist groups.  Most activity was focused on the Students Representative Council, with shifting alliances jousting with a well-oiled Tory machine. Burning issues, which now seem entirely uncontroversial, included the provision of mixed accommodation and a student counselling service, and student representation on the Senate. The latter culminated in an occupation of the Library, which was counter-picketed by Tory students in gowns, brandishing placards in Latin supporting the status quo.  The Master, a thoroughly decent soul, seemed rather bemused by the need to somehow discipline students making both rational and principled demands, and the whole matter was quietly dropped.

Running out of funds in 1977, perhaps because I spent rather more time on student politics than the formal semantics of programming languages, I taught at Napier College and then Glasgow University where I finally wrote up a St Andrews MSc in 1981. From 1983, I have worked at Heriot-Watt University, where I am currently Professor of Computer Science and delighted to hold grants with St Andrews colleagues interested in programming languages. Pleasingly, work I started at St Andrews with friends on value models of capitalist economies, using that self-same North Haugh computer, is still a fruitful research interest.

Alastair Simmons and John Blair

Harkness Scholars 1946

We won Harkness Scholarships at the same time when the award was a nationally famous one. We graduated MB ChB in 1951 and then pursued our individual careers, but we have remained close friends throughout our lives.

Alastair was interested in Astronomy as a schoolboy and John was a keen historian. After his National Service in Nigeria, Alastair became a bacteriologist, first in the Conjoint Medical School of St Andrews University Dundee, and then in Glasgow University. He was awarded the first W.J.Tulloch memorial prize for outstanding contributions to Public Health bacteriology in Scotland. He took his St Andrews MD in 1957, with a ‘thesis of exceptional merit’ on ‘The Polysaccharides of The Genus Shigella’, which was awarded Honours and the University Gold Medal. In 1962-63 he was elected to a Travelling Research Scholarship to study the immunochemistry of salmonella polysaccharides in Germany at the Max-Planck Institute in Freiberg. In 1971-72 he was elected to a second travelling Research Fellowship to study the Immunochemistry of bacterial 0-antigens and human tumour antigens at the Wenner-Gren Institute in Stockholm. He was awarded a Glasgow DSc for these studies in 1972.

Alastair had a life-long interest in observational astronomy and was a member of the British Astronomical Association and the Royal Astronomical Society. He travelled almost every winter to Spitzbergen to make observations of the Aurora Borealis. The results were published regularly and he developed a classification of auroral types based on their geomagnetic features. These studies were awarded the Merlin Medal of the British Astronomical Association.

After John’s service in Aldershot, when he was a member of the RAMC golf team, finalists in the Army Golf championships at Royal St George’s in 1954, he trained in surgery, became senior consultant at Perth Royal Infirmary in 1965 and retired early in 1990.

John won his St Andrews ChM in 1961, with high commendation, for his thesis on ‘The Slipperiness of Human Fat’. He served St Andrews loyally from 1955 to 2001, first in the OTC as C.O, then as Convener of the Military Education Committee and a part-author in the only major text-book; ‘Regional Anatomy Illustrated’, to come from the new Bute. He was awarded the OBE (Military) in 1974. He was an honorary senior lecturer in clinical surgery, and from 1989 he set up medical history teaching for SSC students which achieved national standing in both Dundee and St Andrews. He wrote ‘The History of Medicine in St Andrews University’ in 1987, and was awarded an Honorary DLitt in 1991, promoted early to an Honorary Reader in Medical History at St Andrews, and in 2000 became only the second Briton to be appointed World Vice-President of the International Society for the History of Medicine, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society – a unique distinction for a medical graduate. He left St Andrews at once after, and was invited into the Dundee Medical Faculty where he continues as an Honorary Senior Teacher. He was asked to write the History of Medicine in Dundee University at the request of the organisers of their 40th anniversary.

We both remember the fun of the happy three years we spent in the ‘Willie Low’ residence for medical students, on Dudhope Terrace near the Infirmary. All the others there in our year had served in the War, some with high honour – and we two were the ‘young schoolboys’. We have kept up our friendship with them ever since.

Rev Dr Robin Hill

PhD in International Relations, 1991

"Graduation Blues"

One day in 1989, Professor Paul Wilkinson phoned from his office at the University of Aberdeen to let me know that he would shortly be moving to St Andrews. As his research assistant, Paul kindly said I would be most welcome to join him. I jumped at the chance, not least because St Andrews had been the university which had awarded a PhD, to my father, Dr Alec Hill, some four decades earlier.

After two very happy years in our new setting, I prepared to graduate in Dad's sky-blue and white hood, realising that to wear it would be a bit like draping a rather heavy saltire over my shoulders. On the big day, my wife and parents were seated in the Younger Hall balcony as I took my place among the rows of doctoral graduands. Only then did I notice, with a fairly profound sense of horror, that every other hood in my row was of a markedly different shade of blue from my own. While theirs could only be described as "electric", mine was tending much more towards the "Coventry City" range of the spectrum. Had I made a mistake? Had Dad given me the wrong hood? Surely not. For a moment, I panicked, scared that head janitor Jim Douglas would take one look at me and very publicly point me off the stage in disgrace.

In the end, there was no need to worry: the hood's subdued 1940s dyeing, though more restrained than the synthetic equivalent of the 1990s, was still blue enough to pass the test! (Thank you Jim!)

It was lovely for father and son to have our shared hood put to use that day, and I still wear it from time to time in my role as a Church of Scotland minister - most recently when I was preaching at St Salvator's Chapel in 2007.

Yes, I like the blues, but give me a whiter shade of pale any day!

Picture: A young Dr Robin Hill with his parents at the graduation garden party of 1991.

Dr Michael Belton

BSc Astronomy 1959

I arrived at St Andrews in 1954 straight out of my two years of nationalservice in the RAF. What a change of life (and food)! I put up in HamiltonHall and had two wonderful years there. I can remember the Master intoning:"after all, this IS a university..." and the interminable Latin grace. I wasthere to study Physics and Astronomy and ended up with a BSc Hons (1stclass) in 1959, many thanks to Professor Erwin Findlay-Freundlich, who ran the Astronomy Department. Mainly, I remember my friends: Brian Rippingale, Maurice Frankel, Tom Simpson, Don French, Martin Joyce, Roy Burdon, Bill Watt, Jane Edwards, Clodagh Greenwood, to name a few...

After graduation in1959, I went to study Astronomy in the USA, at the University of California, Berkeley. Amazingly I succeeded in getting a PhD (in 1964) and spent the rest of my professional life in Arizona at the National Optical Astronomy Observatories. Now, I'm the President of my own little research outfit doing flight projects for NASA. Currently, I'm working with spacecraft going to comets 9P/Tempel 1 and to 103P/Hartley 2 and, in past projects, I have vicariously traveled by spacecraft to Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and its Galilean moons. It's a great life! But the best thing was to meet my twoChinese-American wives (one following the other) and the amassing of 2children, 3 step-children and 9 grandkids! I think of my time at St Andrewsoften, especially when playing golf here in Tucson. I am so pleased at thesuccesses and honors that the University has had in research and teaching.

May they continue!

Marc Boulay

Photographic Archivist

University of St Andrews Library, Special Collections Department

Although a recent addition to University of St Andrews Library, I already feel like I am part of a collaboration: a greater whole which continues to reveal more possibilities than I could ever hope for. Joining the Special Collections Department at this pivotal moment in the University's evolution, I couldn't ask for a better opportunity to shape how our Photographic Collection advances, and ensure that it is properly recognised, positioned, and effectively accessed by staff, students, and the broader community.

The exploitation and championing of the rich cultural heritage found in photographs is at the forefront of my team's new access and preservation initiatives. As well, keeping in step with the demands of increasingly sophisticated expertise in the field is a continuous process which actively engages and challenges my entire team. Playing to their passions and strengths, it is their focused application which allows the Photographic Collection to come in to its own as one of the premier resources of its kind.

As was the case in the last century, in the next hundred years we can expect greater academic interest and further refinement in the specialised study of photographic practice as a form of cultural record, individual creative expression, and as the most prevalent media of visual communication of the past 150 years. Looking at photography in a broader historical context, what is contemporary or seen as commonplace today, will be transformed by the passage of time and become an invaluable statement of history and culture. Time, it can be said, encourages the wisdom of hindsight. Much like laying down bottles of fine wine to mature and appreciate for future generations, such is my role with the management of our Photographic Collection.

With the milestone of the University's 600th Anniversary at hand, I am reminded that achieving success on this scope is a question of will and participation, and that such contributions have a far-reaching legacy. In planning for the future, I am focusing our energy equally on what our Photographic Collection will offer as a resource next year, as well as in the next century!

Calum Lunn

Diploma of Medical Science 1984

I feel incredibly proud and fortunate to have been one of the first Canadians to have successfully completed the Diploma of Medical Science program at the University of St Andrews.  I was offered a clinical placement to continue my studies at Glasgow University but had hoped to transfer back to a Canadian medical school so that I would not be a financial burden on my family, since my father recently retired and my mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  I did not get the transfer into the Canadian medical school but went into nursing.  

My training at the Bute allowed me to capitalize on this opportunity.  I went on to be hired to medevac patients from remote northern locations to larger medical centers in southern Canada.  After 5 years, I started to transport patients internationally from countries such as Cuba, Panama, Mexico, England, etc.  After we started a family, I changed jobs to work as an investigator for the Medical Examiner's Office.  Finally, I have left being on call and have started working in the medical unit of a prison.  While the bulk of the work is focused on public health, the recent riot involving over 100 inmates has helped to keep the job interesting.  While the training at St Andrews was memorable, it is the people who made the experience so special.  Andrew Melville Hall was more like a home with an expanded family.  Words cannot explain the feelings that remain for those that I continue to keep in touch with from St Andrews and those that I wish I could see again.  While I look forward to taking my daughters to St Andrews, I know that they will not feel the passion that I will get as the memories come flooding back.  

Dr Murray Fuhrman

MB ChB 1936

My father-in-law, Murray Fuhrman (1911-1994), cherished his years at St Andrews medical school (from which he graduated at the head of his class in 1936),  after which he formed a British medical unit to fight the Fascists in Spain. He then returned home to the US to become a celebrated radiologist, teacher and researcher.  Only his wife Sylvia accompanied him on return visits, while his daughter Leni and I (her husband) made it to the University only in 1999, after his death.  

Without telling Sylvia, and with much trepidation, Leni and I had brought Murray's ashes to scatter in the surf where he enjoyed so much youthful happiness. We had rented a flat overlooking Swilken Burn and, on the eve of Murray's birthday, we informed Sylvia of our plan, which delighted her. Suspecting that what we were doing might be quite illegal, the next morning we profited from the cover of the mist as it burned away to reveal the glorious spires of St Andrews. Then, we scattered his ashes near the lovely spot where Chariots of Fire was filmed.  We walked away, certain we had paid Murray exactly the tribute he would have wished.

Charles L. DeFanti, PhD

Picture: Murray on a penny-farthing (he is the kilted fellow in front, wearing a tam).  The photo was taken in Dundee and appeared in The Courier and Advertiser, Monday February 12, 1934. 

Kenneth Porter

JSA Mathematics - Geology - Kinematics 1944

In May 1943, I had completed my second year of part-time studies at Derby Technical College for the H N Certificate in Mechanical Engineering and wished to become a Pilot in the RAF. I was, meanwhile, apprenticed at Rolls Royce in Derby as a tool designer and also serving as a Flight/Sgt in the Air Training Corps. Then, I was fortunately awarded a Science Scholarship by the Royal Air Force, tenable at the University of St Andrews, beginning in the Michaelmas term, 1943.

I must confess that I had never been north of Derbyshire and never heard of the University of St Andrews, but I gladly accepted a chance to become a member of St Andrews Air Squadron and continue my aircrew qualification studies.

On my way to Scotland, my overnight train to Edinburgh collided with a goods train near Carlisle. The locomotive and first three carriages overturned. Mine was the fourth upstanding. My first communication home to my parents was a telegram that read "UNHURT IN TRAIN WRECK STOP WILL WRITE"!

A group of six cadets was assigned to a boarding house or to St Salvator's for three months each.  As a Bejant, from October 1943 to April 1944 I studied Mathematics and Geology-Meteorology, in addition to Armaments and the other subjects of the Initial Training Wing curriculum of the RAF. I was fortunate that Professor Erwin Freundlich, the sometime colleague of Albert Einstein, taught me Astro-Navigation and Theory of Machines. Physical education included weekly swims at Dundee baths, plus early morning runs along the beach in all winter weather conditions, and fondly recalled when I saw the 1924 Olympiad training scene in the movie Chariots of Fire.

Solace was found in teas at MacArthurs and the Tudor cafe, and Friday night at the old Student Union on North Street, drinking, singing, and learning ceilidh dancing mysteries.  

All too soon, I said goodbye to St Andrews station and caught that slow train that slogged down the coast through Crail, Anstruther and other stops to Edinburgh.

My RAF service, ending as a Radar Navigator in a Mosquito Nightfighter, was well-founded by the UAS experience at St Andrews and my studies there contributed to my subsequent 40-year career as a Professional Engineer in England, Canada, and the United States. I met my Scots wife serving in the RAF and we returned to St Andrews for our honeymoon in 1947. Fifty years later, we found again that, although the Royal Hotel had disappeared, our treasured memories of St Andrews remained as fresh as ever.

Now retired from Boeing, at age 83 I enjoy my grandchildren and still teach and tutor Physical Sciences in public schools.

I hope that the University will always grow wisely, and continue to instil the notion of service in its graduates over the next 600 years.

Elaine Cartwright (née Maguire)

MA Hispanic Languages & Literature 1985, Alumni Relations Officer

"Across the Bridge"

In 1981, I left all that was familiar behind and headed off from my hometown of Dundee "across the bridge" to University.  The day I left home was quite an occasion.  No-one in my family had ever left to go to University and I remember arriving in St Andrews accompanied by lots of family members in a buzz of excitement.  I also remember the moment that they all left, leaving me sitting on an unfamiliar bed in Fraser 13, David Russell Hall - excited but very apprehensive - surrounded by my unpacked belongings and delighted at having a room of my own - at last!  I did not realise at the time that I would choose to spend the next four years living in David Russell, nor did I realise that almost 20 years later I would be walking through the very familiar blocks taking my son to the nursery located between David Russell Hall and Fife Park.

Unbeknown to me at the time, I would graduate, return to Dundee to undertake further studies and start working in administration, only to return a mere 18 months later, so much did I miss the town and University I had grown to love, attracted by a job in the Principal's Office.

So what had attracted me to St Andrews in the first place? Having shown an aptitude for languages at school, several teachers had encouraged me to apply for St Andrews such was the University's excellent reputation. St Andrews was also close enough to home to be able to visit easily and yet far enough away for me to feel independent.

Crossing the bridge was to be more than a physical and geographical relocation. Leaving home to go to University was to mark the beginning of an emotional as well as an intellectual journey, a journey of self-discovery, a crossing of a bridge into adulthood.

I was extremely fortunate in that the Spanish Department, then located in Castlecliffe, offered all the security and support needed by someone who felt very much out of her depth. I will always be grateful to the late "Ferdy" (Professor Woodward), to the late Douglas Gifford and to Bernard Bentley (who still gives me a great big smile when we pass each other on our way to work!), for helping me to believe in myself. I particularly remember Douglas' famous  breakfast tutorials at 8 am in the morning at Castlecliffe - we brought our own croissants and he supplied the coffee, while we would take turns at keeping the fire going... He invariably referred to me as Mopp or Mopperoo on account of my typically 80s perm of the day (see my photo!) - even on my written work which was often adorned with little cartoons.  

Such was my affection for the Spanish Department that I still remember running down to Castlecliffe after my interview in the Principal's Office with Principal Struther Arnott and Professor Peter Grinyer, worried that I may not have got the job. But I did get the job and I have been working at the University ever since - first as a Secretary/Executive Assistant in the Principal's Office working for many years for Professor Augusto Serafini-Frassini and Professor Jim MacCallum, then for Professors John Guy and Colin Vincent. Seconded to work in Development in 1998, I worked as Personal Assistant to the Director of Development and, in November 2003, was appointed Alumni Relations Officer.

As Alumni Relations Officer, I have responsibility for the Annual Reunion Programme, the Family Programme and annual events such as the Parents' Receptions, Bejants' Receptions and the Alumni Carol Service.  I work closely with alumni clubs throughout the world and with the University's Schools and Units on alumni-related matters. I assist with General Council matters and serve as Secretary of the General Council's Committee of the Alumnus Association and co-edit the annual alumni magazine, The Alumnus Chronicle.

I very much look forward to playing a part in the heightened activity associated with the University's celebration of its 600th Anniversary.  I thoroughly enjoy the opportunities afforded by my current role to interact with fellow alumni, assisting them to keep in touch with each other and with the University.  

Emeritus Professor Julian Duncan

PhD 1963

Why St Andrews?

Sir Harold Mitchell, a Scottish philanthropist, endowed a scholarship in memory of his good friend, Sir James Irvine, to be "awarded to a graduate of University College of the West Indies for the purpose of studying for a higher degree at St Andrews". Sir James was the Chairman of the Commission set up to look into the establishment of an External College of London University in the English-speaking Caribbean. The first award was made in 1960; I was the recipient. As such I did not choose St Andrews, St Andrews was chosen for me.

Dean's Court

I arrived in St Andrews on a cold grey day at the end of September 1960 and was taken to Dean's Court - my home for the next three years - by Professor Butler, who happened to be on the same train on which I travelled from Edinburgh to Leuchars. The residents - many of whom were 'divines' - represented a range of nationalities which was an education in itself and made for an interesting, enjoyable life, except for an odd occasion or two in the year during which I served as Senior Student.

The Department

The day after my arrival I presented myself at the Department of Botany and met with the then Head, Professor John Burnett, who introduced me to Dr J A Macdonald (later Professor and Head) with whom I was to work. I discussed my research project with my supervisor and had no difficulty settling in; this was in large measure made possible by the friendly and helpful nature of both staff (at all levels) and students which metaphorically lifted the grey clouds that greeted me on arrival. My activity in the Department was not limited to the research project upon which I embarked, but involved demonstrating to undergraduate students, a memorable part of which was assisting at a field course in Ecology on Lerwick, Shetland.

Town and Gown

The friendliness exhibited by the residents of Dean's Court and members of the Department was evident in the town-folk also which allowed for easy integration into the society. The little old ladies of the town, some of whom travelled around on bicycles, always had a greeting with a tail of cheer "cold: but dry!" I became a chorister at Holy Trinity and played badminton with some of the members of the congregation at their church hall. The Overseas Society - run by townsfolk - afforded additional opportunities for social interaction. The University itself contributed significantly to social life through its Hall balls and the activities of clubs such as the Kate Kennedy Club, of which I was a member. I shall never forget the kind hospitality of Professor and Mrs Macdonald, whom I delighted in 'first footing' and Dr and Mrs David Weeks with whom I spent my first Christmas in Scotland.

The academic training I received included presentations at research seminars, which was good preparation for the career on which I embarked - lecturing at The University of the West Indies.

I have no regrets at having attended St Andrews. The memories of the place and the friends I made - with some of whom I am still in contact - are as fresh today as though forty-six years have not elapsed since their occurrences. I still recount many to these to my wife and daughters who have accompanied me on many of my return trips to St Andrews.

I trust that the academic excellence and friendly atmosphere of the University and town will continue to be experienced by generations of students to come.

Matthew Dickinson

MA English Language & Literature 1993

I chose St Andrews thanks to my grandfather Robert Glover, who was from Dumfries originally. The rest of my family are English, and before he died in 1986, he made sure I understood that a Scottish university education was the best you could get. After I finished my A-levels, I applied to read English at both Edinburgh and St Andrews, and although both universities offered me a place, I preferred the look and feel of St Andrews, and the way the course was structured, allowing me to focus on Old and Middle English which had always fascinated me, and the approach of the tutors I met. I now have a firm grounding in the AB language and vowel shifts - it has had its uses!

I suppose I was a pretty classic student. Most of my time was spent socialising (sometimes excessively so), or working (perhaps not excessively enough!). I took an active interest in politics although was not dedicated to any one political party. I remember a rather strange march through the back streets of Glasgow, to the evident disdain of the locals, to protest against student loans, with the University Labour club. I met Alex Salmond on a couple of occasions and even then he impressed with his ability to create and inspire a vision, and also to find the best solution.

I would say that St Andrews creates well-rounded people. There is a great sense of fun and liveliness combined with the innate heritage and tradition, and it seemed to me that most people left better educated for sure, but also better equipped for life than from other institutions. The core skills of reasoned argument, the ability to present a case articulately, to inspire and motivate people, are all skills that I felt developed for me whilst I was at the University. I carry with me a love of literature and will do so for the rest of my life thanks to some truly inspirational tutors, and also a smattering of Russian, and a knowledge of Arabic culture that I am sure will come in handy one day!

I have spent my career in the wine trade, not by design, but I have enjoyed it. Having worked as a trader for retail chains buying categories of wine, I moved over to the supply and import side ten years ago, selling and marketing wines to all manner of customers from anywhere in the world. I am now a joint owner of the largest independent wine importer in the UK, and our plans for growth are ambitious but achievable. I have kept in touch with several friends from University days, and we meet as a group with our families once every two years all together - we hire a big house, usually in the UK, and people come from the States, Australia, etc.

My belief is that the University will continue to flourish. All institutions need to have a set of values (profit is only one aspect of being in business), and the strength of these at St Andrews is considerable and I am sure remain with many alumni. In business I have tried to live by a similar code of integrity and professionalism, and I believe it works for our business and those with whom we trade. If St Andrews can retain this traditional set of values and live them daily, then the next 600 years will be enormously successful for the University.

Jonathan Adams Rogers

MA International Relations - Management 1998

I studied International Relations and Management at the University from 1994 to 1998. I first came to the University from London where my parents were stationed with the United States Embassy. My fondest memories of the University stem from living for 3 years in Hamilton Hall overlooking the Old Course. I met friends there that I still have today, one of whom will be the best man in my wedding in September of 2009 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I grew up at the University and the lessons I learned there will remain with me for a lifetime.

I am currently finishing up my Juris Doctor degree at the University of Denver and will take the Bar Exam in Colorado in July. I then plan to pursue a Master of Laws (LLM) degree in Washington, DC in the Fall of 2009. I hope the University will continue to focus on tradition, scholarship, and the development of students for the next 100 years.

Laurie Soojian Woo

JYA Arts 1977

I think most people remember their college or university years as a self-contained and meaningful period in their lives, set apart in their memories as special. The setting, the community, the atmosphere all contribute to this distinctiveness. When you spend your Junior Year Abroad, the singularity of the experience is even more heightened; and when the university is St Andrews, those special days are recalled and cherished more intensely.

St Andrews was music. Certainly I had listened to music before, but during that academic year 1976-77, I experienced music in connection with an exceptional place, and St Andrews itself somehow became more. Sunday chapel services, ceilidhs, post-ceilidh pier walks led by pipers, student acoustic performances, pub singing, Gilbert & Sullivan shows, Evensong, Balls (not just dorm Balls, but that year the Queen's Jubilee Ball as well), a February arts festival (Appalachian Spring and James Galway), the Kate Kennedy parade, May Morning dancing in the Castle, the ever-present reels and jigs wafting through the St Andrews Woollen Mill store. All of it, like the Gregorian chants at Compline in St Leonard's Chapel, anchored me to the passing moments, and I felt more fully there. Musical St Andrews was often joyful, sometimes mystical, and always evocative.

I experienced almost every day of my year there with a sustained delight unparalleled in my life since then. Of course in part, to a starry-eyed American like me, it was all just so new and different and Scottish: bagpipes, kilts, Cathedral and Castle ruins, the West Sands, academic mothers and fathers, Raisin Monday and Hogmanay. But my pleasure was always enhanced because more than any other place and time in my life, I lived in the moment at St Andrews. Music helped me do that. And so, for me, one of the great gifts of St Andrews was that there was so much music.

More than thirty years later, a piece of St Andrews, both town and gown, has remained compellingly alive inside me. Auld acquaintance and days of auld lang syne are not forgot - not by me, and I'm betting not by anyone lucky enough to have attended St Andrews during the past 600 years.

Rita Cummings

MA English Language & Literature 1972

I have only fond memories of my stay at St Andrews where I studied English Language & Literature, as well as Mediaeval History, French, and Moral Philosophy. As a mediaevalist, I remember how wonderful it was to study in Parliament Hall in my 3rd and 4th years, and be able to look at the rare books. We all loved bicycling around town, red gowns flying, and taking long walks along the sands. I made life-long friends there that I treasure today.

My Senior Woman was a classics major, so I still have my original Raisin Receipt in Latin beautifully inscribed and painted by her. In my first two years, I stayed at University Hall (the first women's residence hall in Scotland) in a lovely room overlooking the garden where we sang Gaudeamus igitur at formal dinner. Do they still do that? I remember one evening a group of male students from St Salvators serenaded us singing Hey Jude under our windows. Yes, let's rejoice while we are still young.

How did my time there prepare me for the future? The tutorial system was a particular benefit in building analytical and critical thinking skills. I remember studying the Metaphysical poets who have been a life-long love for me, as well as mediaeval texts like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight or the Anglo-Saxon poets. It's amazing to think that a student of mediaeval literature and history went on to work on new technology products for banks! I was part of the team that launched online banking at Wells Fargo Bank, for example, and later was part of the dotcom boom. Now in my 50s, I've switched careers to fundraising, and I'm currently Development Director for a land trust in the San Francisco Bay Area where I've lived for 30+ years. I'm enjoying doing work that will leave a lasting legacy. But I wouldn't be here if it were not for an Education Abroad Scholarship I received for graduate study at the University of California in 1972. I will always be grateful to St Andrews University for giving me that wonderful opportunity and encouraging my interest in graduate study.

What do I wish for the future of St Andrews? That it continues to be an international university that encourages international exchange and dialogue across all disciplines. It was a gift for me to be a student at St Andrews and live there for four years. May it continue to be a "thought leader" and continue the academic excellence that I so appreciated during my time there.

Malcolm Ferrier

BSc Pure Science 1952

I was on the golf team each year (captain in 1952). Though I benefited hugely from my academic efforts, it was my golf associations that likely brought even greater rewards. All I had to do in any golf group was to mention my St Andrews activities, and I was immediately accepted, even looked upon with favour. Add that to my Scottish heritage (the world's best criterion for being welcomed with approval!) and things opened up for me; I was accepted everywhere in the golf world, and what a blessing that was. Whether it was joining a club, submitting something to a golf magazine, giving a talk, gaining access to a golf course - all were smoothed over by the St Andrews link.

Golf is such a world-wide pursuit, and accessible by all ages, that contacts are frequent and varied. I was lucky enough to have this passport to pretty well anything golf-related. And indeed to wider prospects: not many people are unaware of golf - even though they may shake their heads at the obsessions it seems to engender.

The golfing friends I made, at St Andrews and beyond, have been treasured buddies, and we have shared countless hours on the course and in the clubhouse afterwards. I'm still in touch with several of them - for instance, I golfed with Tom Robertson in California not long ago.

And of course the character-enhancing traits that golf inculcates stay with you forever. I look after the activities of a small golf foundation whose mission it is to preserve and enhance golf's fine traditions. I do a fair bit of golf coaching and that brings me in touch with young folk, which more and more has been shown to be a key pillar in aging well.

I must also mention the very best St Andrews contact - Wendy Gates, Hons BSc 1948-52 - whom I had the great good fortune to marry in 1953. We have four boys; none of them, however, astonishing as it may seem, attended St Andrews, though we had many a fine holiday there.

One more St Andrews link: my father, Charles Ferrier, graduated from St Andrews in 1913 and immediately went off to Mesopotamia, was wounded there, and recuperated in India (where I was born). I well remember one brief conversation: "I suppose you'll go to St Andrews? I guess so. And study Science? Sure." And that was that - an incredible contrast to the agonizing decisions I see prospective students making these days.

Dr James F McKellican

MB ChB Medicine 1963

When I decided around the age of 14 to 'do' Medicine, it was taken that I would follow in my father's university footsteps and go to St Andrews (he had read Engineering). And it was also pointed out that I should just 'do it all' in Dundee. One did what one was told! What was not pointed out to me was that my maternal grandmother's cousin had been Professor Sir John Marnoch, professor of surgery at Aberdeen and surgeon to the Royal household in Scotland! Otherwise, I might have directed myself there!

Just before I went up to Queen's College, my father died and I also lost a very dear chum at the same time in an accident. I had already, in retrospect, been exhibiting the starting signs of recurrent clinical depression. So the start at Queen's did not augur well.

I struggled with poor concentration in my first year and had to repeat a year of Chemistry. I had had to resit Physics and Chemistry in September 1957 but failed Chemistry again. When enquiring about this and whether to continue, it became evident that the Chemistry Department thought I had also failed the Physics resit and had failed me in Chemistry. The indication was that they might have passed me if they had had the correct facts but I would just have to do another year. This helped immensely! I enrolled at the Bell Street Technical College and did Chemistry there in the evenings. I had no grant that year but it never occurred to me to take a part-time job.

Progressing on after this stumble, my health improved and I began to enjoy my studies. I was never one for clubs and sport but I did go to a Record Club on Friday nights. I also attended the British Medical Students Association events.

Our teachers were dedicated individuals (some eccentric) who, in the main, had our interests at heart and were prepared to offer help. When the pre-clinical 2nd MB exams were over, our colleagues from the Bute School joined us for a summer term of comparative leisure prior to the onset of the clinical studies. We all seemed to integrate well and lasting friendships were made.

We were proud that we had a Queen's Physician (Professor Sir Ian G W Hill) and a Queen's Surgeon (Professor Sir Donald M Douglas) in our medical school. Staff in those days were not considered off-track if they were eccentric and this added to the enjoyment of study. The run up to finals was hard work but the reward came with the results being given out the morning after the last exam and after our celebratory dinner.

Will the University survive another 600 years? I think so and am especially pleased that the Faculty of Medicine has been revamped and hopefully can produce 'pure' graduates on its own merits.

Colin Halliday

BSc Geography 1982

Having been invited to an open day at the Geography department after being offered an unconditional place I felt that St Andrews was a very welcoming place and, being a small town was just where I wanted to study. Though on paper it was my second choice, once having visited it was my only choice.

I studied there between 1978 and 1982 and had four fantastic years. I was lucky enough to live in Sallies the whole time, having chosen it as the closest to the Geography department, and made some excellent friends each and every year. The one regret that I have is that I did not keep in touch with any of my friends after graduation as we all scattered across the globe.

In first year, my academic brother was keen to join the archery club, where our academic mother was president, and so we took up a new sport in our first term. Neither of us were very good and left the club once our mother graduated.

We also tried squash as something new, and at 10p a session a great price, but I never have had good ball coordination so he soon left me behind. I was involved in the Scout & Guide Club for four years, which was interesting, if a small club.

During my years in St Andrews I was a scout leader in the 8th Fife, just along from the Castle, and found that having a contact in the town life as well helped to keep me grounded. It was strange sometimes bumping into some of the boys with their family while out with my student friends round the town. It was a privilege one evening to visit the Castle with the scouts and wearing my red gown get lowered into the bottle dungeon, not many people can say that I am sure.

On leaving St Andrews I tried the Kirk, Metropolitan Police and finally got into transport, spending 17 years with P&O Nedlloyd working my way up from a transport planner to business analyst, through terminal manager finally to UK Cost Control and Procurement Manager. I now work for DHL Global Forwarding as the UK Inland Logistics Manager, a new department for this company, which I was brought in to set up, covering container haulage requirements from UK ports throughout the country.

Having met and married a lovely lady while living in London, I am now divorced and living on my own with my cat in the Midlands, via Felixstowe and Southampton.

St Andrews is a fantastic place of learning with a location that can only be described as relaxing and conducive for getting the best out of students. Whether it was being on the pier during a storm or walking along the beach on a calm summer's evening it was always possible to dip out of the all-consuming student life when needed, the pub crawls and parties were always a good lively counterpoint too.

St Andrews has developed a unique style and place in Scottish education which I would hope will never be lost as it goes forward and continues to change and grow. Its reputation in the wider world is very high, and as a businessman, it is that sort of reputation that I regard as a sound backing for potential employees.

Margaret Squires

I arrived as an academic wife in 1964. My husband had asked his then supervisor, Prof Gilbert Ryle, how long one should stay in a first job, and had been told seven years was probably what one should expect. Seven years: it represented nearly a third of my life so far, and seemed an eternity. However would I fill the time? Well, children, for a start. Then the wife of a colleague phoned, did I know anyone who could drive, as she and a friend were contemplating setting up a book-stall in the market? So was born The Quarto Bookshop. Thirty seven years later, I retired, but not before realising how much I owed to the University. The Library was a source of bibliographies, and, before the internet, the all important Book Auction Records to research antiquarian books. The students were customers, and suppliers. Each May I would work through piles of polythene bags full of books to make an offer for redundant texts to students leaving, while the queue shuffled patiently forward chatting quietly. Every September, I would cart tourist books and golf books back to my house and replace them with those same books I had bought, and watch them rush out of the shop to students grateful to save a bit of money on that all important reading list. My stream of competent Saturday student helpers would sometimes ask me for references. The most recent one, on collecting yet another first joked â¿¿I just had to get one to maintain The Quarto traditionâ¿¿. Each year they would depart to a new world away from St Andrews: some would call back, and some we could monitor through acting appearances on TV or via parents who would pop up in the shop on holiday. In the early days, I would promise myself that when the children grew up, I would get a proper job; the Quarto seemed too much like fun. But by the time I had bought out my partners, it had become a proper job. This University town was a good place to spend a working life.

Elizabeth Wilson

MA Hons German & Spanish 1998

I studied an MA (Hons) in Modern Languages from 1993-98. I was also very privileged to have received a Robert T Jones Memorial Scholarship from the University to study at Emory University in Atlanta from 1994-95. Since graduating from St Andrews I have worked in the UK and overseas as a diplomat, humanitarian worker, and development policy analyst. I am now based at Imperial College London working on a project for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa. I am married with a son.

Through my studies and student activities at St Andrews I acquired key skills which I have built on throughout my professional and personal life. I also made friends for life, and I continue to be inspired by the actions and achievements of fellow St Andrews graduates with whom I keep in touch.

One of the many things I really like about St Andrews is that it attracts students from all over the world. As a student I volunteered for the overseas student orientation weekends, and enjoyed meeting students from different countries and cultures as they arrived for the first time in Fife. As Societies' Officer I remember joining the Chinese Society in order to ensure they had enough members to register and receive a Students' Association grant (there were very few Chinese students at the University at that time). The Society's main acitvity was cooking authentic Chinese food. Little did I realise that I would one day learn to speak Mandarin and spend five years working in Beijing. I now also fully appreciate how important the work of that society was.

My hope is that St Andrews will continue to be a dynamic university with strong international links and a world-class reputation. I am proud to be an alumna of St Andrews and I hope it will have continued and even greater success in the next 100 years.