A SCOTS building tycoon who drowned while on holiday in the Canary Islands left a £6m fortune.
Derek Mickel, 79, was pulled from the sea in Fuerteventura by holidaymakers who spotted him in the water.
The emergency services rushed to the scene at Pajara beach, in Costa Calma, on the south of the island, but they were unable to save the grandfather-of-two.
Mr Mickel lived with his wife Ann at a lavish £575,000 home in Newton Mearns, Glasgow and his family was one of Scotland's richest.
Until recently he had served as chairman of the family-run construction firm Mactaggart & Mickel.
He had worked for Mactaggart & Mickel for more than 50 years, alongside many of his family members including his son Andrew, the current Homes chairman at the firm.
A keen gardener and curler, he was also a supporter of the arts and enjoyed going to orchestra, opera and ballet performances.
Mr Mickel had also been involved with The Mickel Fund, which donates about £100,000 a year to charity including work to provide accommodation for young homeless people.
Details of his £6,214,452 fortune have emerged following the publication of his will.
Documents show he held £359,889.11 across five bank accounts.
And he also had over 23,000 shares in Mactaggart & Mickel valued at £1,727,900.
He also had a stocks and shares portfolio worth £3,006,975.
Mr Mickel also had furniture worth £1650, artwork and paintings totalling £6125 and jewellery valued at £800.
He had ordered his estate should be passed to his wife and family after his death.
Before embarking on a career in the building business, Mr Mickel attended Dollar Academy and later graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in architecture and town planning.
After his tragic death, tributes were paid to the popular businessman in a statement.
It said: "Mr Mickel was a prominent Scottish businessman having joined the house builder as a third-generation family member in 1961, becoming a director in 1966 and serving as chairman of Mactaggart & Mickel for eight years up to 2012.
"He continued to be a director of the business. His son Andrew, a fourth-generation family member, joined the company in 2000 and is Homes chairman and group director."
At Mactaggart & Mickel, Mr Mickel pioneered the design of traditional homes within modern, pedestrian-friendly layouts using streetscapes and public areas to create a sense of community.
He was said to have made a huge contribution to the firm and the wider construction industry, especially as it diversified in the first decade of the millennium.
Mactaggart & Mickel was part of the team responsible for transforming the Commonwealth Games Athletes Village into 700 new residential homes.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article