I was saddened to read the obituary, this week, of one of Pitreavie AAC's earliest members ,  Tom 'Tam' Bower ,  who became a World authority in Child Psychology & Development and that he had passed away last month.

Tom lived in Campbell St and attended Camore PS and Dunfermline HS . One of the original club members ,   he started off as a 15 yr old sprinter but after  he was persuaded to do a time trial over one lap  - 440yds in those days - that became his event.  In 1959 he won the Scottish Schools 440yds title in 51.4 ( =400m 51.1} on the grass track of Goldenacre in EDinburgh, beating , in the process,  another who was to become a high profile name , Ming Campbell ,  who is better known these days as Sir Menzies Campbell , Advocate & MP.  Tom represented Scottish Schools at the Schools International at Colwyn Bay , Wales , clocking 51.0 secs and then went onto Einburgh Univ in 1959 improving his 440yds time to 50.6(=50.3 400m) while there and was awarded his University Blue  in 1961.

As a student , Tom  was an outstanding scholar and worked very hard.  I remember him in the dressing room at Pitreavie , telling me how many hours of study he had done that particular week at Univ - don't think he had much sleep - so it came as no surprise when he was awarded the prize for the most outstanding student of for 1963  , the Sir William Darling Award.  He went on to study at Universities in the US (Cornell. Harvard , Stanford) , returning to lecture at Edinburgh Univ 1969 and was appointed Professor in 1984. He went back to the US as Professor of Human Development at Texas Univ, Dallas where he published several text books on the subject. He retired in 2011 and remained in Texas . 

I have several memories of Tom. We often walked up the dual carriageway  from the track with clubmates after training (quite often in wind and rain) , going into Corrieri's cafe at the corner of St Andrews St for very welcome hot blackcurrant drinks amd chat about athletics.  Although a sprinter  he ran the Ben Nevis race in 1959 to support the team.

I've attached an old photo of the club group returning from the 1958 Ben race. It was taken in Glencoe on the Sunday morning travelling home after the race.  The team placed second and it looks like it might have been a late night.  Tom is second from the right in the back row. The complete line up is:

Back Row L to R - Ronnie Lindsay , John Linaker , Gordon Haig , Jock Duffin , Johnny Welshman , Tom Bower , Claude Foley ( 1st Club Secy)

Front - Graham McDonald , Alan Milton

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