A SPORTING Dollar couple are marking six decades of marriage, having built a life together after meeting at university.

The town’s Maureen and Graham Pearson, both 84, celebrated the diamond anniversary with family and friends, having tied the knot on September 1 all those years ago.

While they have lived in Dollar for some 50 years, Graham is still an Alloa boy at heart, coming from a family which has been in the Wee County capital for the best part of three centuries.

Maureen, née Ritchie, originally hails from Dundee and the couple met during their first year as they studied at the University of St Andrews.

There must have been something in the air as Graham, who studied chemistry, and Maureen, a maths student at the time, overlapped in the chemistry lab where it all started.

It was only right, then, that they would return to tie the knot at the university chapel three years after graduating.

(Image: Family contribution)

Graham’s studies were sponsored by the glassworks in Alloa where he duly returned to start a career.

Going on to work for various industrial companies in the area, latterly the Wemyss, he would work himself up the ladder to managing director and mused how he hardly had to leave the Wee County to do it all.

Meanwhile, Maureen served a brief spell at Alloa Academy as a maths teacher before a chance 12-week opportunity to fill-in at Dollar Academy turned into 25 years.

Both remained interested in sport over the years, with Maureen keen on tennis and hockey.

She thoroughly enjoyed her teaching career and also led a hockey team while being involved with life at school more widely.

Graham’s passion was athletics as well as rugby.

In the former, he is understood to have been the first pupil from Alloa Academy to be selected for the Scottish international athletics team.

He was also heavily involved with Alloa Rugby Club for a long time, including a spell as treasurer.

Graham recounted: “The then president came up and put his arms around my shoulder and said: ‘Graham, we’ve got a wee problem here with the account, could you help us out until the end of the season?’

“So, 28 years later I managed to hand over the duties of the treasurer at Alloa Rugby Club.

“A familiar tale if you are ever coerced into becoming a treasurer”, he mused.

(Image: Family contribution)

The couple are proud parents to three children in Colin, an accountant currently in London; Fiona who is an architect in Belfast; and Kenneth who is an actuary in nearby Dunblane.

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The couple are also grandparents to one boy and six girls and are enjoying a happy retirement.

Holidays remain memorable moments, taking the car across to France and Switzerland to see spectacular scenery being one of the highlights.

As for the secret to a long-lasting marriage, Maureen and Graham agreed: “It’s just give and take!”