Chris Townsend
TGO contributor and equipment editor (1979-present day)
Roger Smith was a key figure in my outdoor writing career. When I started out, he encouraged me and gave me valuable advice and gentle criticism that improved my writing. As the editor of The Great Outdoors he suggested I should write gear reviews for the magazine. Look where that led! Always friendly and helpful he was wonderful to know.
TGO magazine and the TGO Challenge are his lasting legacy, but he was equally active in the environmental and conservation field. He was one of the founders of the Scottish Wild Land Group in 1982 and persuaded me to join. On a long walk I did from Ben Lomond to Ben Hope in 1981 he not only drove me to the start and came up Ben Lomond with me but later left a large fruit cake in a bothy for me as a tasty surprise.
Peter Evans
TGO deputy editor (1983-1987) and editor (1987-1991)
Roger had edited the magazine since its launch in 1978, and we worked well together. He gave me free rein to make my own contribution to the title. We were colleagues but also friends, and he was instrumental in introducing me to the rigours of the Scottish hills. He was very fit, having been a hill runner and orienteer, and often left me trailing in his wake. I have many memories of glorious outings, mostly with Roger in the lead – the Munros above Killin with Clive Tully, a multi-day backpacking trip on ending with Gairich above a temperature inversion, another bagging trip in torrential rain, finishing with a hitch back to Inverness.
Then there was the annual Great Outdoors Challenge (known as the Ultimate Challenge back then), which absorbed a lot of our time in the before, during and after May. With a magazine to put together, we could never do a joint crossing, since one of us had to stay in the office, but we joined forces at the control point in Montrose to witness the walkers coming in and listening to their tales. Roger had a keen eye for detail, which proved useful for the proof reading work he did for publishers after his magazine days, and for indexing my own book on the Deeside Way, a project I undertook thanks to Roger mentioning me to the publisher, Birlinn. He remained mentally very sharp and undefeated by his illness, even towards the end. I shall miss him.
John Manning
TGO deputy editor (1994-2007) and Challenge coordinator (2011-2016)
It’s hard to pay Roger due credit in a just a few words: suffice to say he was one of the most wonderful people I’ve had the privilege to know and work alongside: a fine journalist, a meticulous editor, a true gentleman, and the heart and soul of the TGO Challenge. He was there on the day I had my interview with Cameron McNeish for the role of TGO’s deputy editor, and it was always evident that he cared deeply for the magazine that he had founded and nurtured. Roger gave me my first book commission, for a walking guide to the South Pennines for what was then HMSO (now The Stationery Office). As series editor he oversaw a range of titles which was acclaimed for its clarity, practicality and attractiveness: hallmarks of the attention to detail he brought to everything he did. I’ll always be grateful for his encouragement, mentorship and ongoing patience in that project (especially when I delivered the manuscript a year late!).
Following Roger’s Parkinson’s diagnosis, I was asked to take on Roger’s role of TGO Challenge co-ordinator, but thankfully he continued to share the helm for many years. The job involved an enormous amount of admin and was much more involved and more stressful that I could ever have imagined: Roger was the rock on which I leant heavily, always there to offer advice, expertise, guidance and wisdom. Having his support gave me the confidence to do the job to what I hope was the best of my ability: Roger was one of those people who strove to bring out the best in people.
When an unprecedented storm hit the west of Scotland in 2012, just a day after 300 walkers had strode off east into the wilds on their Challenge crossings, Roger – along with the first-rate team of vetters he had recruited over the years – was at my side as we went meticulously through the participants list, calling every mobile phone number we had, every hotel, bar and bunkhouse, to track each Challenger down and make sure they were safe. At the final count, we were two down: it was to Roger I turned, heart-in-mouth, for reassurance that calling mountain rescue it was the right thing to do: he was the calming presence, his was the meticulously devised system that enabled us to ensure every Challenger was, ultimately, safe.
The Challenge is more than a walking community, it’s a family. Roger made it what it is, with his care, diligence, sharp mind and brilliant thinking. It might have been Hamish Brown’s idea, but Roger took that and shaped it to create something quite unique. Everyone who’s done the crossing of Scotland will recognise that sense of family.
Cameron McNeish
TGO editor (1990-2010)
I remember Roger as manager of The Sweat Shop, a running equipment shop owned by Chris Brasher, when he was approached by Walt Unsworth to edit the brand new The Great Outdoors. He kept to his marathon roots despite becoming an avid hill bagger. I realised how competent Roger had become and how fit he was when I did the second Challenge with him. He kept to his marathon roots though – his office attire was a two-piece suit, collar and tie and old running shoes… Roger was a hugely efficient and highly effective magazine editor. He built up a vast knowledge of outdoor life in a very short time and always had a deep love and understanding of the natural world.
He eventually left The Great Outdoors to create another brand-new magazine called Environment Now. He was an equally excellent event co-ordinator, and was liked and respected by everyone involved. He was excellent company, such was his vast knowledge of a huge range of interests. If I was on television quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire and I asked to phone a friend, I know who I’d call.
Darren Bruce
Magazines Publisher, Herald and Times Group
Roger was a true legend, and he was there on my very first day 36 years ago. Over the years I was fortunate to work alongside so many outdoor editorial stalwarts, and Roger always stood tall. Roger rejoined us for a spell in the late 2010s and remained with us right up until the end of 2022. In those final years I came to appreciate him more than ever: his wisdom, his humour, and his sheer tenacity for life. Roger was a gentleman, a professional, and a wonderful human being. He remained razor sharp, self-deprecating, witty, and utterly committed right to the end. There aren’t many cut from his mould these days.
Emily Rodway
TGO editor (2010-2019)
Phenomenally knowledgeable and passionate about the outdoors, warmly supportive and encouraging to others who shared his passion, Roger Smith was a kind and generous presence throughout my years editing the magazine. As a youngish editor with intermittent imposter syndrome, Roger was exactly the person I needed at my back, at the end of a phone or, often, across the table at my local café. Not only did Roger bring decades of hill-going knowledge but also an invaluable eye for detail and a mountain of calm, intelligent common sense.
There are so many of us who owe Roger thanks, not least the thousands of people who have participated in the marvel that is The Great Outdoors Challenge. I am proud to count myself among them, and very proud too to have worked alongside the witty, wise and wonderful Roger Smith.
Carey Davies
TGO deputy editor (2010-13) and editor (2019-23)
I hope it’s not too grandiose to say that The Great Outdoors embodies an interplay between community and independence; a perspective-shifting awe before nature; an impulse to not only tread lightly on the living world but to tend to it and leave it improved. For me that spirit was embodied in Roger Smith. He started TGO with these ideas in mind and I was always deeply conscious of remaining faithful to them.
We met often during my first stint on the magazine from 2010-2013, as deputy editor. He would visit the Glasgow office and once or twice we went for walks around the city’s parks. He was self-effacing, supportive and kind, and an inspiration to me at a formative time in my life and career. Later, as editor he was a calm eddy in stormy waters, and the support he offered was always unfailingly modest and benevolent. He was also a stalwart contributor with his thoughtful and engaging columns on nature and the environment. His spirit will be with me as long as I walk on the world and I’m sure the same is true for many.
David Lintern
TGO contributor and editor, 2011 – present day
I first met Roger to collect my Challenge certificate in 2012; a small, wise looking gent with a twinkle in his eye shook my hand warmly as if we were old friends – entirely in character and a gift he gave to so many. Years later, as I floundered, he proofread my first book, ‘just for fun’; efficiently, insightfully and without fuss. The book was on hill running, so as Bob Graham Club member no.117, and the original author of the seminal ‘little green book’ called 42 Peaks; The Story of the Bob Graham Round, he was on home turf.
I was both flattered and intimidated to be handed the baton on his long-standing environment column after he stepped aside in 2021. That spot was a key part of the title’s DNA as both a general outdoor AND a campaigning title. I’m glad we have reinstated the column more recently with Right to Roam campaigner Nadia Shaikh, and that TGO continues to report and comment on these issues more widely.
Some editors lead from the front, others from behind. Roger’s style was to walk alongside, as a friend of wild places, and an ally and mentor to those who spend time in them. Go well, Roger – Cuiridh mi clach air do chàrn.
Sue Oxley & Ali Ogden
Challenge co-ordinators (2014 – present)
When we took on the role of coordinators, Roger became a mentor, advisor and friend to us both. He had the vision, persistence and ingenuity, not to mention the organisational skills, to turn the idea of walking across Scotland into the unique event that is the TGO Challenge. It is a testament to him that the Challenge continues 45 years later largely along the same lines. We were fully aware of his continuing passion and commitment to the Challenge and yet he never pushed us to take his advice but was always there when we needed it, offering with good counsel and the odd well-meaning wry comment.
Roger’s friendly voice at Challenge Control is something many of us looked forward to every year. He had the ability to put people at their ease and extract vital information (where you were, who you had seen) without seeming to interrogate or rush. It’s a skill we’ve spent a decade trying to perfect, but no one can do it as well as Roger did. And long before we became coordinators we were both Challengers. Roger was keen to support female Challengers and particularly those walking solo. There were phone calls, genuine interest without being pushy, and we can both speak to that ourselves as female solo walkers. That personal touch resulted in both of us completing many solo crossings and indeed meeting each other in a remote glen on the Challenge 21 years ago.
He succeeded in creating a family feel to the Challenge and many friendships and a walking club (the Hill & Mountain Walking Club) have been formed as a result – one of the things that makes the Event so special and is something we continue to value. The TGO Challenge is, thus, a big part of his legacy and the friendships Roger’s far-sighted invention has facilitated. At Montrose last May he had many of us close to tears when he said, “While ever I have breath in my body I will be here”. Roger will forever be with us especially during those last two weeks in May.
Roger’s own entry in the TGO Challenge database reads: Smith, Roger. 38. Editor TGO 1978-87; event co-ordinator 1992-2011. Husband of Patricia, father of Rebecca. Crossings: 81P (McNeish R), 83P (Tully), 85S, 94P, 98P (both PS as O’Neill)
