David Kennedy Fraser

David Kennedy Fraser FRSE FEIS (1888-1962) was a Scottish psychologist, educator and amateur mathematician. He was an author of several books looking at the education of the handicapped and was closely associated with the Scottish Association for Mental Health. He campaigned vigorously for the rights of handicapped persons.[1]

He was the grandson of the celebrated Scottish singer David Kennedy and was named in his honour.

Life

He was born on 10 February 1888 in Edinburgh the son of Alexander Yule Fraser FRSE (1850-1890), a maths teacher at George Watson's College and his wife, the celebrated singer Marjory Kennedy (1857-1930). His father died when he was only two. She raised David at their home, 5 Mayfield Road[2] in southern Edinburgh, together with his grandmother, two aunts and a sister, an all-female environment.[3]

Together with Andrew J G Barclay his father had founded the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and mathematics was inevitably a lifelong interest despite his father's early death.

David attended George Watson's College 1893 to 1904. He then took a general degree at Edinburgh University 1904 to 1907, graduating BSc in 1908 and MA in 1909. He then undertook foreign studies first at Leipzig in Germany and then Cornell University in the United States, studying under G M Whipple. At Cornell he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Education in 1914.

In 1919 he became a lecturer at the newly rebuilt Moray House School of Education in Edinburgh, also teaching at Edinburgh University. In 1923 he became a Psychologist for Glasgow Education Authority, working at Jordanhill Training College.

In 1929 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James Drever, George Carse, James Hartley Ashworth and Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker.[4]

He died after a short illness at his home in Milngavie, Glasgow on 26 August 1962. He left a wife and three daughters.

Publications

References

  1. ↑ http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Obits2/Kennedy-Fr_RSE_Obituary.html
  2. ↑ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1891-92
  3. ↑ http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Kennedy-Fraser.html
  4. ↑ BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF FORMER FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
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