Obituary: Stewart Fraser

Archibald Stewart Fraser (always known as Stewart) was born on 4th August 1933 in Carmyle, a suburb of Glasgow. He died on 3rd March 2024, at Mount Barker, South Australia. In 1941, Stewart’s family moved to Aberdeen and he went on to study at the University of Aberdeen, graduating in 1955 with a First Class Honours Science degree and the Silver Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He worked for short periods as an assistant geologist in Labrador and Greenland, and studied soil survey and land classification at the Agricultural University of Wageningen in the Netherlands. He was then awarded a scholarship to study the geographical and pedological problems of crofting in Scotland. Stewart’s university career began in 1957, when he was appointed as Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Aberdeen (1957–1959) and then as Lecturer (1959–1961). In 1961, he moved hemispheres to the University of Auckland, on the way meeting his future wife Margaret when both were travelling by ship from England back to the Antipodes. They married in 1963, and then, in 1965, Stewart joined the newly established Department of Geography at the University of Western Australia, in Margaret’s home state. In 1967, Stewart made his final move to the also new Discipline of Geography at Flinders University, where he was appointed as Senior Lecturer and remained until he retired in 1997. He exhorted all laddies and lassies to ‘bide a wee while’ in front of a soil profile in order to demonstrate, and for them to experience, the delights of wetting clay fragments with a little spittle, or rolling them back and forth between fingers and thumb … Stewart Fraser was a remarkable teacher and supervisor. He gave me and I suspect many other students a passion for Geography and for research. I did geomorphology as a subject in my honours year under Stewart, with only one other student taking this subject so we were able to take many field trips, I still have a vivid memory of Stewart showing us the band of ironstone rocks in the roadside cuttings where the Xanthorrhoea (Grass trees) grew, and his care in breaking clods of soil so we could see the sand beneath the sheet of ironstone that was an integral part of this environment. At Flinders, Stewart served the University and the School of Social Sciences in a wide variety of administrative and advisory roles. He played a major role in establishing and maintaining the Foundation Course, a Flinders innovation that helps to prepare mature age students to undertake university study. He was also an elected staff member of the University Council for almost 14 years, a member of the University’s Academic Committee for six years, a president of convocation, chief examiner in geography for the South Australian Public Examinations Board, and university representative on the Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia, to name only some of his activities. In recognition of this service, Stewart was given a Distinguished Service Award by the University in 1995. Stewart Fraser’s early eloquence, which impressed me 35 years ago, has not deserted him—indeed it has had much expression in the lecture room, on many of the university’s committees and during the several terms he served on the University Council. Stewart has proclaimed and exemplified many of the values which were once taken for granted in halls of learning but which have often been neglected, sometimes denigrated, or at least not defended by those best placed to do so; these are the values of collegiality, open discussion, respect for alternative arguments, accuracy, good writing and intellectual rigour. Stewart was proud of his Scottish heritage and would wear a kilt on formal occasions. Music was important; he described himself as an ‘accidental fiddler’ and played the violin in the Flinders Chamber Orchestra and later in the Adelaide Scottish Fiddle Club. Church was also important, as well as an interest in athletics. I introduced him to the film Chariots of Fire, which I thought would appeal to him as it featured a deeply religious Scottish athlete. He watched it twice. Before retirement, Stewart and Margaret moved to a small rural property, where they could keep their daughter’s three horses and enjoy a country life. After retirement, Stewart was characteristically active in the Adelaide Hills Soils Board and its chairman for 3 years. He is survived by his wife Margaret, his two sons, John (a senior geography teacher) and Geoffrey (a geologist), and his daughter, Catherine (a music teacher and accomplished Scottish fiddle player).