Stanley William Grierson, widely known as Stan, was born on 25 March 1939 in Kilmarnock, Scotland. He had one older sister, Olive.  His mother Elizabeth Grierson (née Hastings) was born in Tynron near Penpont, Dumfries in 1901 and his father William, a Master Grocer, was born in Penpont in 1888.
 
The family business was the Grierson Family Grocer shop in the village and the two children attended the local Penpont Primary school; past articles in the Dumfries and Galloway Standard show that Olive and Stan were both achievers at a young age.
Stan’s best friend right from primary school days was Neil McKay and Stan recalled throwing his school bag in the door after school and racing off to play with his friend Neil.  He gained expert knowledge of his home terrain around Penpont and would often climb and walk near Tynron Doon, the local peak.
 
During his secondary school years Stan boarded at Strathallan School where he gained four ‘A’ levels in Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Further Maths.  His lifelong love of skiing and real mountaineering adventures began when he was away at Strathallan.  He skied in the Scottish mountains and scaled many Scottish peaks.
 
Stan then went to Edinburgh University where he obtained an MA degree in Maths and Physics. He represented his university as a wrestler and was a keen runner for much of his life, as well as a high jumper, water skier and weight lifter.
 
Having gained his driving licence Stan owned two MGB cars and then obtained a Pilot’s licence.  At this time the RAF offered Short Service Commissions for Pilots and Stan was commissioned from 1961-1966 as a Royal Air Force Officer and Pilot. 
 
Thirty other pilots joined the same University Air Squadron, number 165, and there have been annual reunions on the anniversary of their joining the RAF ever since, with many of them remaining good friends.  The 50th reunion was celebrated in 2011 and the latest reunion was in October 2016. 
 
Although his main RAF service was piloting the delta winged Vulcan in the V-force, Stan regularly piloted the RAF Chipmunk trainer aeroplane. In 1966, Stan was commissioned in the RAF Volunteer Reserve as a Flight Lieutenant pilot with the job of flying cadets and others on air experience flights, and he began introducing very many people to the charms of the Chipmunk including its ability to do barrel rolls and loop-the-loop. 
 
When Stan completed his service he left the Royal Air Force to join a large computer company called Burroughs. Stan’s career in Burroughs began in 1966 as a salesman at the Newcastle Branch, progressing to Zone Sales Manager in 1971, then to Sales and Customer Training Manager with a move to Southend in Essex in 1976.
 
This coincided with his marriage to Linda and then the start of family life with the birth of daughter Karen in 1977.
 
In 1978 Stan returned to familiar territory when he was promoted to Branch Manager of the Newcastle Branch assuming control of the Burroughs customer base in the North East, including sales, engineering, support and administration. 
Baby son Gavin was born in North Shields and the family enjoyed life in Whitley Bay.  Shortly after, Stan became Branch Manager for Microcomputer Products Commercial and Industrial Sales but being current on flying hours he was also able to fly his wife Linda to France in a Cherokee aeroplane for the birth of baby Ailsa. The family was soon on the move southwards again to Head Office, where Stan became Marketing Manager of the Burroughs’ Corporation’s first microcomputer.  Baby Neil was born at the family home in High Wycombe.
 
When Burroughs became Unisys Europe-Africa Ltd Stan’s role was to promote the sale of computer work stations to major airlines in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.  He acted as a liaison manager for a contract for the corporation’s biggest ever work-station order with the US Air Forces in Europe, a contract worth $50 million US dollars.
 
All four of Stan’s children grew up in High Wycombe, enjoying the Chilterns with two family dogs Gem and Becky.  They were all tall and sporty and had been able to try out life during many and varied out-of-school activities. One by one they flew the nest and graduated.  During this time one or more of the children could often be found working for Stan in the holidays at his company The Glass Mountain which was a catering services wholesaler and glassware supplier.  Around 5,000 products were stocked for local catering organisations.
 
In 1999 Stan married Barbara and Flackwell Heath has been Stan and Barbara’s home since 1996. They enjoyed many UK holidays together in Scotland, Newcastle, and Braunton in Devon.  They also travelled abroad together to Slovenia, Lithuania, the Canaries, particularly Gran Canaria and Gomera, Austria, Italy, France, South Africa, Crete, and Majorca.
 
When at home they enjoyed gardening together, local walking, and community activities.
This included helping the local Royal British Legion where Stan was on the Committee, first as Treasurer and then as Chairperson.
Stan also served as a committee member and then as Chairperson of the Patients’ Reference Group at the local surgery.
 
Stan and Barbara celebrated Stan’s 70th birthday with a trip to Edinburgh shared with Gavin, Ailsa and Neil.  On another occasion Stan himself once piloted a flight with Barbara to the Isle of Wight for lunch. 
 
Stan maintained a busy life in retirement and in addition to his community activities and flying he was also a beekeeper for a while.
 
He developed his long experience of private investing by becoming a Director of ShareSoc, a UK-based shareholder association which supports individuals who invest directly in the stock market.  As a result he was often called upon by national television and press to comment on either company activities or executive pay especially in relation to the rights of private investors.  To this end he wrote a letter to the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, in 2006, and later helped to give a ‘public flogging’ to RBS chiefs in 2009 at their AGM in Edinburgh.
 
Stan enjoyed playing the piano and one of his favourite pieces of music is Schubert’s The Trout. He also liked Mozart and Beethoven as well as Lonnie Donegan, Fats Domino and Patsy Cline.
 
Stan explored many European ski resorts (including many black runs) with old friends Neil McKay (a lifelong friend from Penpont), Ken Coates (from Burroughs) and Vince Robertson (from the RAF 165 Squadron), among others which sometimes included their children and even grandchildren.  Destinations have included Selva, Kitsbuhel, St Anton, Sestriere, and Altenmarkt.  Stan typically organised ski trips for up to a dozen people at a time and estimated that his skiing companions had amounted to over 100 different people including three other long-standing friends from the 165 Air Squadron: Robin Renton, Peter Dodworth and Ken Parry.
 
His later skiing and hiking adventures were often shared with friends and the children at an impressive list of destinations such as The Dolomites, Corsica, Slovakia, the Pyrenees, The Ridgeway and the Wicklow Way. 
 
As a member of U3A, the University of the 3rd Age, Stan practised his conversational French and German to aid the trips abroad and at home he always enjoyed DIY and made a success of woodwork in particular.  The surface of his work bench is testimony to many projects including settees which many of us still use to this day (30 years later), a toboggan for his children that he converted from a pair of skis, and some rather special ornamental wheelbarrows in the garden at Flackwell Heath.
 
Stan was a true Scotsman and wore the McGregor tartan kilt with pride. He passed away peacefully on 8th December 2016, aged 77 years.