MORE THOUGHTS ON RABBIE D. - Eric Penman

Rabbie had four great loves in his life: family, gardening, football and reading. He was a good family man with four of a family. Ann. Joan. Janet and Robert. Rabbie was a Hearts supporter through and through. He became attached to Prestonpans YMCA in the 70s and one of his prodigies was Jim Jefferies. later Manager of Hearts of Midlothian who led out the Hearts Cup Final side at Hampden on May 18th 1996.
Later Rabbie moved on to be leader of Rosemount Boys Club (in which a Cup is played annually in his memory). Also he was greatly admired by the Juvenile fraternity where he became Chairman of the Under 14/15 section.
He also became involved with Prestonpans Labour Club and Prestonpans Legion football sides. While with Rosemount. he became Chairman of the youth Amateur League. He was also an avid reader of books on history being a regular visitor to Prestonpans Library and was very helpful with correspondence problems.
Rabbie, or "Rab" to his friends, was green-fingered, always pottering away in the greenhouse. Once he got a bit of turf from Wembley and put it to good use. He grew seedlings from the grass and began to build up a good source of seeds to sow. Finally he sowed two gardens from this bit of turf. A man with many talents. Rab enjoyed an occasional sweet stout or a nip of rum and peppermint.