A FORMER director of Rolls-Royce in Scotland has died at the age of 94.
Donald McLean was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1918.
His daughter, Wendy Roe, said as a young boy her father could not wait to leave school.
The 60-year-old said: "He wrote an autobiography especially for the family – we're under strict instructions never to let anyone else read it!
"It's called Our Life Laid Bare; in it he says he couldn't wait to leave school to go swimming and play golf with his friends."
Later in life, Mr McLean decided to educate himself and went to evening classes at Paisley Technical College.
Mrs Roe said: "He studied an engineering BSc at London University in 1936 until 1940 and then applied to join Rolls-Royce in Scotland in 1940, and they had openings in Belper."
Mr McLean started working at Rolls-Royce's new headquarters in Belper – they had moved during the Second World War – as a designer.
But Mrs Roe said her father was keen to join the war effort despite being in a reserved occupation.
She said: "He joined the RAF in 1942 and went over to Oklahoma for training.
"He went there on the Queen Mary with Winston Churchill. He always said it was the best protected ship in the Atlantic."
After defying the U-boat threat, Mr McLean flew in India and Burma during the war and dropped supplies of food and ammunition.
After the war, Mr McLean rose up the ranks in the design department at Rolls-Royce and became the director of design engineering.
Mr McLean met his wife, Olive, in Wolverhampton when she was sent there during the war. The couple had four children, Jill, Ian, Alistair and Wendy. Olive died two years ago at the age of 90.
Mrs Roe said: "Being an engineer he was very handy and built two boats, a canoe and a speedboat.''
In 1969, Mr McLean returned to Scotland to be director of Rolls-Royce's Scottish factories and was responsible for about 15,000 people.
Mrs Roe said: "He saw the Scottish companies through the collapse of Rolls-Royce in 1971. He pulled the Scottish factories up by their socks and made them very profitable again."
After his retirement in 1982, Mr McLean became director of Scottish Electricity and also took on a consultancy roles. It was in the same year that he received a CBE for services to industry.
Mr McLean and his wife moved back to Derbyshire to be closer to their daughters and in their old age moved into Spencer Grove nursing home in Belper. His funeral is tomorrow at noon at Markeaton Crematorium.
