George Stevenson, a former Edinburgh Evening News printworker who worked in the basement of the newspaper's North Bridge headquarters for more than 40 years, has died aged 79.
George's association with The Evening News goes back to before he was born.
His father Joseph worked as a packer, while his mother Catherine worked in the secretarial offices.
He attended Parsons Green Primary and Drummond Street secondary, a
nd took his first job at a wireless radio retailers in Easter Road before moving to the Evening News printworks in 1946.
In 1947, aged 18, he was called up on National Service to serve as a wireless operator for the RAF, based in Ireland.
Upon his return two years later he resumed his job with the Evening News.
George's initial ambition was to become a compositor, setting the text and pictures on the page, but with no vacancies in that department he settled on becoming a machine-operator, feeding the paper through the presses and ensuring the final product was perfect.
In 1950 he met his bride-to-be Margaret, a Standard Life clerical worker, at the city's Plaza nightclub.
Margaret said: "He was out at a cousin's wedding earlier in the day and he came out afterwards with his mates.
"They were all quite boisterous but George was the quiet one. We got chatting, and I met him again the following weekend. We started seeing each other from there."
The couple were married in 1954 at a ceremony in St Oswald's Church in Montpelier Park, with the reception held at the Royal British Hotel.
Their first child David was born in 1957, and their family was completed by a daughter, Irene, three years later.
Margaret had by now given up her job at Standard Life to raise the children, while George busied himself with his work, golf at Duddingston Golf Club and bowls at Willowbrae Bowling Club.
Sadly, the weekend shifts at the Evening News kept him from his boyhood passion of watching Hibs play at Easter Road every Saturday.
Irene bore the couple their first granddaughter, Dionne, in 1987, but joy turned to heartache five years later when Irene was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
"George was just devastated," said Margaret. "We were told that there were two types of MS – a fast progressing illness and slow one. Luckily, she seems to have the slow one which is currently – 18 years on – in remission."
The couple's second grandchild, David's daughter Laura, was born the year after Irene's diagnosis.
George took early retirement in 1989, aged 60, when the Evening News's printworks moved from North Bridge to a new facility in Newhaven Road.
Margaret said: "George felt he was too old to learn the new systems so he decided to call it a day."
George spent his retirement working in the garden and improving his handicap, but he had to give up golf three years ago with the onset of Parkinson's disease.
He suffered a brain haemorrhage in February and never fully recovered.
George died on 29 June. A funeral service will be held at Seafield Crematorium on Saturday, with donations to be taken for the aid of Multiple Sclerosis research.
