Allen (Mick) Matheson

Allen (Mick) Matheson CBE PPRIAS, who has died after a long illness aged 88, was an architect and town planner, who designed some of Scotland's finest post-war hospitals. He also witnessed one of the defining moments in the turbulent history of 1960s America.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Mr Matheson was the youngest of nine children. His Scots father John worked for the mighty Cable and Wireless Company. His mother Nina (née Short) was South African. He would later recall an idyllic childhood, beside the beach, a home full of servants and learning to swim in the Mediterranean.

At the age of nine, Mr Matheson was sent back to his father's native Edinburgh. At George Watson's College he became captain of hockey, played rugby in the first XV and excelled in cricket, which became a lifelong passion, ultimately joining the MCC.

Mr Matheson's school leaving qualifications earned him a place at Cambridge, to study economics, politics and modern history. His heart wasn't really in it and he spent time enjoying the distractions of Cambridge town. It was wartime so Mr Matheson signed up for the RAF, and was sent to Canada for navigation training.

Not long after Mr Matheson's posting, the war ended. Having only earned his "half wings", he returned to the UK. However, Mr Matheson had determined an academic course was not for him. His love of design set him off in another direction. In 1948 he enrolled in the architecture course at Edinburgh College of Art.

The course was initially firmly grounded in classical teaching traditions. The arrival in 1949 of a somewhat anarchic new professor, Gordon Brown, heralded an inspiring new teaching programme. Gifted young architect tutors, including Alec Esme Gordon, Alan Reiach and Duncan Black introduced their students to the potential for innovation of International Modernism. Mr Matheson and a group of fellow students visited the half-built Festival Hall and the rest of the preparations for the 1951 Festival of Britain. Later he and fellow student Eric Davidson visited France and Spain on a travelling scholarship.

After completing his architecture course Mr Matheson followed up with a degree in town planning. In 1957, during a four-year period working as a senior planning assistant at Nottingham County Council, he married college sweetheart Catherine Lumsden, an artist and art teacher. They had two sons, Graeme, who followed his father into architecture, and Euan who works in London, in finance.

Mr Matheson had spent a short period immediately after completing his architecture studies working alongside his classmate Ivor Dorward for the South-East of Scotland Health Board. In 1959 he again joined Mr Dorward, this time in the Glasgow-based practice founded by JL (Joe) Gleave. Mr Dorward became a partner in the practice in 1960, as did Mr Matheson in 1963.

Despite Mr Gleave's death in 1965 the practice was successful, and prolific. Mr Matheson completed work on Prestwick Airport, largely to Mr Gleave's design.

His own projects included Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, the Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital in Glasgow and a major housing development, including four tower blocks, at Pollokshaws, Glasgow.

In late May 1968, Mr Matheson joined a UK Government mission to look at US airport and hospital buildings.

On a visit to O'Hare Airport in Chicago he was invited to join the welcoming party for Vice President Hubert Humphrey who was visiting Chicago during the Democratic primary elections in which he was a candidate.

The next stop on Mr Matheson's tour was Los Angeles. On the day of his arrival the media was buzzing with the news that, another Democratic candidate, Bobby Kennedy, had been shot and was fighting for his life. The next morning, the news broke that Kennedy had died. The Presidential plane was flying in to collect the body. Again there was massive security. An airport manager proferred a more poignant invitation to his British guest: "Would you like to meet the Kennedy family?"

Mr Matheson stood among the small group who met and solemnly shook hands with the bereaved family members, while a much larger crowd, mainly security, stood around. This was one of the most memorable experiences of Mr Matheson's long life.

Until his retiral in 1994, the practice, which had been joined by Mr Gleave's son David continued to be busy, particularly in its specialist areas of hospital and university buildings. Many of Glasgow University's major buildings of the period are to their credit.

Mr Matheson combined his busy business life with increasing voluntary work. He chaired the Scottish Construction Industry Group, was a director of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, vice-chairman of the Board of Glasgow School of Art, a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission and president of the RIAS from 1981-1983, helping the Incorporation to take an increasingly active role in Scottish public life. He was awarded the CBE in 1997.

After his retiral, Mr Matheson indulged his interests in art and as an avid spectator of sport, particularly cricket, and travel. Sadly in the last decade of his life he suffered a succession of different cancers.

However, with the support and care of his beloved Cath, he managed to stay at the family home in Glasgow's Maryhill until this year.

Mr Matheson's last months were spent at the St Margaret of Scotland Hospice in Clydebank. His family will be forever grateful for the kindness, compassion and humanity of his treatment there.

As his fellow architecture student, best man and lifelong friend Mr Davidson has observed, Mr Matheson was a strikingly tall, handsome man, abundantly endowed with both charm and creative talent. Mr Davidson said he was also "one of the most accident prone men I've ever met" and "his trying to help often resulted in total chaos". Yet to Mr Davidson, as to all his many friends and colleagues, Mr Matheson was a profoundly decent man and a loyal friend with a sparkling wit and a great line in anecdotes. He also combined immense creative skill with a passion for architecture.

Mr Matheson is survived by his wife Cath, sons Graeme and Euan and adored grandchildren Finlay and Helena.