Alistair Campbell Simpson

Died: March 28, 2015

Alistair Campbell Simpson, who has died aged 78, was a lecturer who played a leading role in a number of voluntary and community groups and was instrumental in preventing the demolition of Callendar House, which has since become a valuable historical and tourist asset to Falkirk. He was also a leading figure in the Scottish Bonsai Association and was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays by the Japanese government - only the seventh Scot to be given the honour since 1875.

He was born and educated in Perth and subsequently gained an honours degree in geography and history at St Andrews University, before teaching at Morgan Academy, Dundee and on exchange at Essex District High School in Ontario. In 1966, he moved to Falkirk as a lecturer in social studies at Callendar Park Teacher Training College.

In time, he also assumed responsibility for audio-visual support, spent two years as director of in-service and, after gaining one of the first post-graduate diplomas in educational technology in Scotland, became head of that service in the college, before transferring, on its closure, to Moray House College, Edinburgh as an educational television producer/director.

Even as a student, he showed an aptitude for administration in student societies. Over the years this skill was to become the hallmark of his involvement with voluntary and community groups.

In 1968, he became secretary and festival convener on Falkirk Arts and Civic Council and subsequently vice-chairman, chairman and finally honorary life president. He expanded the number of community groups participating, created a more varied festival programme and steered it through local government reorganisation, so that when he retired in 1990 it ran successfully for three weeks in several venues, and became the model for other local community festivals. It was early in this time also that he halted the demolition of Callendar House by writing to the Secretary of State for Scotland and then promoting its importance by directing on the lawns a "son et lumiere" depicting four scenes from its history.

Throughout this time, he sang with local amateur operatic societies, helped to set up Falkirk Festival Chorus (in which he also sang) and the Falkirk Children's Theatre and Youth Theatre in cooperation with the District Council's entertainments officer. In addition, he helped to run a music club within the college, produced a number of short operettas with his students and indulged his passion for music by singing in several Edinburgh churches.

In the mid-1980s, he became interested in bonsai. Due to his administrative skills, before long he was called upon by the Scottish Bonsai Association to run a local group and become national membership secretary and newsletter editor, creating an efficient database, upgrading the newsletter and, self taught, designing the association's first website. These duties he carried on for 17 years, even when receiving cancer treatment - he took all his computer equipment into hospital even while having a bone marrow transplant in 1995.

After retiring from Moray House in 1992, as he moved from SBA secretary to vice-president, president and finally honorary life president, his commitment remained to bring the enjoyment of bonsai to ever more people, running workshops, public workdays and demonstrations and visiting a huge number of small clubs throughout Scotland to talk about and demonstrate bonsai. He organised a highly successful Bonsai Friendship Weekend of talks, demonstrations, workshops and displays at Stirling University to celebrate the millennium and, as a director of Gardening Scotland, introduced there a greatly enlarged bonsai area of three award-winning exhibition stands and a major amateur competition section.

He was also chairman of trustees for the National Bonsai Collection of Scotland for several years, steering this living archive of bonsai development through difficult times until he won financial support from the Japanese Embassy in London and with some bequests built a permanent home for the collection in a Bonsai Pavilion in Japanese garden style, formally opened by the Consul-General Tarahara of Japan. Then to provide financial security for this valuable asset, before his retirement through ill health, he applied for and gained charitable status for the collection.

In recognition of these efforts in promoting Japanese art and culture in Scotland, the Emperor and Government of Japan, in December 2007, awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays, the highest honour available to a non-national in the field of art and culture, of which he is only the seventh recipient in Scotland since 1875 - probably the proudest achievement of his life.

In addition, he was one of the founder members of the Scottish Gardeners' Forum, which offers support to horticultural groups, produced its newsletter for a number of years, became its second chairman and, shortly before his death, an honorary life president.

It was by reason of these achievements and his enthusiasm, dedication, administrative expertise and sheer hard work that the Royal Caledonian The Horticultural Society also awarded him firstly a certificate of merit, and then, in January 2009, The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's Medal for an outstanding contribution to horticulture by a non-professional.

At no time did he allow ill health, which shadowed him for many years, to distract him from his commitment to the organisations he served, but at the same time, he remained for 50 years a kind, caring husband to his surviving wife Pat, and devoted father to his sons Colin and Derek and grandfather to granddaughters Eilidh, Millie and Sky.