Donald Forbes Macgregor (23 July 1939 – 3 June 2020) was a Scottish long-distance runner, teacher and politician. He competed in the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

in Munich, representing Great Britain in the men's marathon event, in which he finished in seventh position in 2:16:34. He also competed for Scotland at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

in Edinburgh and 1974 in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, New Zealand. He had a personal best time of 2:14:15.4.

Biography

Macgregor was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, and studied at the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

. He was chairman of the Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council until 2007, and served as a

Liberal Democrat Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties See also *Liberal democracy *Lib ...

councillor on North East Fife District Council from 1988 to 1996. He was principal teacher of German in Madras College, St Andrews from 1974 until 1999, when he retired from full-time teaching. Until 2006 he taught French and German part-time in the Business School of the

University of Abertay Dundee , mottoeng = "Blessed is the one who finds wisdom." , established = 1994 – granted University Status 1888 – Dundee Institute of Technology , type = Public , chancellor = Alice Brown , principal = Liz Bacon , head_label = Chair of Co ...

and was also a German-language tour guide. He published a book of poetry, ''Stars and Spikes'' (2004, Nutwood Press), following in the footsteps of his father Forbes, who was a more prolific author and published among many other books with a Scottish theme, including the best-selling ''Greyfriars Bobby – the True Story at Last''. More recently Donald was involved in research for John Bryant's books ''3:59.4'' (2004 – Random House) and ''The Marathon Makers'' (2008 – John Blake Publishing) and in photo caption translations for German books about the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

and 2008 Olympic Games. He did this and other translation work for the Olympic historian Volker Kluge (Berlin/Brandenburg). In May 2007 he was elected to Fife Council as one of the ward members for

East Neuk The East Neuk () or East Neuk of Fife is an area of the coast of Fife, Scotland. "Neuk" is the Scots word for nook or corner, and the East Neuk is generally accepted to comprise the fishing villages of the most northerly part of the Firth of ...

and Landward ward (Liberal Democrat) and forms part of the Fife Council coalition administration with the Scottish National Party. Following his running career, he coached distance athletes as a member of Fife Athletic Club. Macgregor and his former wife had three children. In 2010 he published an autobiography, ''Running My Life'' (Pinetree Press, St Andrews). In 2016, with co-author Tim Johnston, a fellow Olympian, he published ''His Own Man'' a biography of Dr

Otto Peltzer Otto Paul Eberhard Peltzer (8 March 1900 – 11 August 1970) was a German middle distance runner who set world records in the 1920s. Over the 800 m Peltzer improved Ted Meredith's long-standing record by 0.3 seconds to 1:51.6 min in London in ...

, a German athlete (Pitch Publishers 2016).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macgregor, Donald 1939 births 2020 deaths Sportspeople from Edinburgh Scottish male marathon runners Scottish male long-distance runners Olympic athletes of Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games competitors for Scotland Athletes (track and field) at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games Scottish Liberal Democrat councillors People educated at Stewart's Melville College Alumni of the University of St Andrews Academics of the University of Abertay Dundee Councillors in Fife Scottish biographers Scottish autobiographers