My friend Davie Laing, who has died aged 79, was a college lecturer whose life outside the classroom was often devoted to promoting political discussion.
Attracted to socialist ideas, particularly those of the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci, he joined the Young Communist League in his teens and later moved to the Communist party, remaining a member until 1991, when it was dissolved.
After that he became a member of Democratic Left Scotland (DLS), a non-party political organisation. As depute editor of the DLS magazine, Perspectives, he took great pleasure in visiting festivals and events in Scotland as he tried to get people to contribute articles. He also set up and ran a popular discussion group, the Gas Board, in the west end of Glasgow.
Davie was born in Portobello in Edinburgh to Thomas, a foreman builder, and Margaret (nee Herkes), a tailor at the Jenners department store in the city. A talented footballer in his youth, he played for Edinburgh Schools in goal and was offered the chance of going on to Chelsea’s books. However, his father refused consent, insisting that Davie’s education should come first, and any remaining hopes of pursuing a footballing career were dashed when he suffered a severe leg fracture a couple of years later.
After school Davie spent six years as a bank clerk, following which he took a degree in general and economic history at the University of Edinburgh. Two years in Canada followed, teaching British history at the University of Calgary, before he returned to Scotland to take up a teaching post at Anniesland College in Glasgow. He worked there from 1972 to 1992, finishing in the post of senior lecturer, having taught subjects including higher history and higher economic history. Once he left Anniesland he taught evening classes for a number of years before retirement, and also did some personal tutoring.
In 2010 Davie initiated a project with the artist Alexander Moffat, a friend from his teenage years, under which DLS funded Moffat to paint portraits in oils of some of the big names of contemporary Scottish culture, including the writer and artist Alasdair Gray, the theatre director David MacLennan and the academic and observer of nationalism Tom Nairn.
Davie is survived by his sisters, Marjory and Jean, his nephew, Stephen, and his niece, Susan.
