Dorothy Joan Paterson was born in Edinburgh in 1913 . Her father was Robert George Paterson , a minister in the Church of Scotland . She lived in Pollokshields, Glasgow and attended University of Glasgow from 1931-1935 . In her first year she studied natural philosophy, chemistry and botany gaining a second class certificate in ordinary chemistry. Her second year studies were organic chemistry, higher botany and geology, while her third year studies were zoology and advanced botany. In her fourth year, Dorothy studied for honours in botany, graduating with a 1st class honours degree BSc (pure science) in botany on 28 June 1935 . Apart from her studies, she was also athletically inclined, gaining a blue in hockey in 1935 .
She became a teacher at Hutcheson Girls Grammar School and was evacuated twice during the war to Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire . She married a minister, Archibald Grant , in 1943 , moved to Dunfermline, and then to Aberdeen in 1951. Once settled in Aberdeen, she resumed part-time teaching at St. Margaret's School for Girls in Aberdeen. She died in February, 2006 , aged 92.
From the guide to the Papers of Dorothy Paterson, 1913-2006, science graduate, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1926-1936, (Glasgow University Archive Services)
