It was sad news, Peter, but not unexpected. He'd been battling cancer for several years now and the end had been inevitable for some time. Despite his illness, he continued to come into the club on a daily basis to work as normally as he could. As you say, he was a genuine fan of Dundee United and poured a lot of cash, time and effort into the club. At the last match I attended, about three weeks ago, he was sitting in a wheelchair by the dugout and managed a very weak wave to the crowd as they chanted his name. I think we all knew then that his time was extremely limited. A genuinely nice man who will be greatly missed.
What makes this whole episode even more tragic is that his son-in-law was killed in a motorbike accident just a few days earlier. His daughter, therefore, has lost her husband and her father within the space of a few days. Just awful.