Brown, Dougie

In the NEWS 1978…

Dougie pours a pint while chatting to customers is one of his pubs.

Pub Boss Who Helps To Lift Your Spirits…

For fourteen years, Dougie Brown has listened to the problems of his pub customers with a sympathetic ear. But today he talks to people professionally about their social problems.

Dougie, who owns two pubs, one in Hamilton and the other in Blantyre, has become a full time social worker.

He spent £5000 this year on college fees for the second of a two year course at Jordanhill College, the first year costing £180.

But Dougie (38) married with two young sons, can afford to sit back and enjoy the good life of golf, tennis, and cruising about in one of his two cars.

So why did he choose to become a hardworking social worker involved in the distressing strains of others.

He says, “I am the kind of person who can’t loaf around all day. The running of the pubs just wasn’t giving me satisfaction.

“And from behind a bar, you can see a lot of people’s problems. After a few beers, their family troubles soon come out. “I felt I wanted to become more positively involved.

UNIQUE

Of course at Jordanhill College is unique in that it is open only to people aged 30 or over with a sound practical experience of life. After two years hard slog, Dougie sat his finals last week and is awaiting the results “confidently.”

Dougie’s experience was a close-up of life in a pub where “groups of people meet and over a pint discuss in a general sort of way, their distressing problems.”

His wife, Meg (32), is now taking over the administration of the pub and she says that socially this is very helpful to herself. “The two boys are at school age now and I was getting bored hanging about the house all day.”

Dougie, who will visit the pubs regularly, will spend many of his evenings and weekends on top of the full time day work trying to help in cases of broken marriages, rent arrears, housing problems, unpaid bills, and he hopes to specialise in the fostering and adoption of children.

Dougie’s other roll, listening to other people’s problems.