Gordon Williamson is retiring after overseeing the 40th anniversary celebrations for the Association, saying it “was the right time to go”. Gordon has held the role since he was aged just 23 in 1979.

Williamsburgh’s management committee praised him for his “outstanding dedication” to the role and for remaining with Williamsburgh for his entire working life.

Chairperson Margaret Symons said Gordon was a “true servant” of the housing association movement and the Renfrewshire community whose entire career was devoted to one role – to provide good housing for Paisley’s residents.

Margaret added: “His efforts and those of his team over the years have improved housing for hundreds if not thousands of families and we owe him a great debt of gratitude.

“Gordon leaves with our very best wishes and deep appreciation for all that he has done and we wish him many years of well-deserved retirement.”

Gordon’s association with housing began in 1979 when housing associations were springing up across Scotland.

Paisley’s east end was one such area and had been identified by the then Renfrew District Council as an area in need of urgent improvement.

A steering group was formed and it hired Gordon as a young man in his 20s as its director – fresh from completing his degree at the University of Strathclyde.

Together they won funding from the Housing Corporation and set to work refurbishing Paisley tenements – initially in McKerrell Street, Ladyburn Street and Lang Street.

The pace of tenement improvement work quickened and many more were refurbished – transforming the lives of the people living there.

Today, Williamsburgh has 1,621 homes and factors a further 560 with housing stock in Renfrew, Johnstone and north Paisley. Building work on its latest development at Kilbarchan got under way earlier this month.

Now that he is retiring Gordon will have more time to pursue his wide range of hobbies including continuing to play 5-a-side football, singing in a choir, a new found love of tending an allotment and a much-anticipated tour of China with his wife Jan.

The couple has one grandson Nathanial aged 18 months and a second grandchild due later this year.

Gordon said of his time at Williamsburgh: “It really has been a wonderful journey and I feel very privileged to have had forty years at Williamsburgh.

“Anyone who remains in the same job for 40 years naturally develops a very strong bond with the organisation and I feel that has been an important factor in my time at Williamsburgh.

“If I was to be asked what I have been most proud of it would be the fact that we started out to improve people’s housing and we are still doing it 40 years later.

“It is hard to believe that when we started to comprehensively improve tenements in Paisley’s east end, some properties had no running hot water and had outside toilets – incredible as that may seem.

“Williamsburgh is a great example of the housing association movement which was created by people who wanted to make a difference. I’d like to think I have played a small part in that.”