Fraser, Donald Blake

ENCAENIA, MAY, 1980
DONALD BLAKE FRASER
to be Doctor of Science

If the layman wishes to arouse the ire of members of that ancient fraternity of surgeons, he has only to address them as "doctors," for no matter what other honours befall them -- and many have befallen Donald Fraser -- the surgeon insists on the simple, democratic title of "Mr." It is, therefore, with some misgiving that we confer a doctorate on our distinguished alumnus, fearing, perhaps, that some medical deus ex machina will descend to pluck him from his fate.

Perhaps, however, the thought that he is also returning to his alma mater for the fiftieth reunion of his class may be compensation enough, although there must have been some regret at leaving his well-tended garden in Hampstead for the rough signs of a burgeoning, rain-soaked New Brunswick spring.

Born at Hatfield Point, New Brunswick, and after schooling at Saint John Grammar School, Donald Fraser entered the University of New Brunswick only three months after his sixteenth birthday, and was on his way to Christ Church, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, at an age when many students of today are still struggling in their freshmen years. Two years later, he graduated from Oxford with First Class Honours and, by the time he was thirty, he had acquired seven medical degrees and titles -- including a fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons -- and had married the charming lady who is with him today.

For many years -- 1948-75 -- he was Consulting Gynaecologist at St. Bartholomews Hospital -- at which renowned home of medical learning, he taught and inspired innumerable students and issued articles to medical journals and text-books on Gynaecology, Obstetrics and Midwifery. From 1971-74, he was Senior Vice-President of the Royal College of Gynaecology, and inevitably, his address was Harley Street -- a street whose only rival in the annals of literary history, perhaps, is Baker Street.

For all his achievements in another land, however, many here will feel in his presence today a sense of simple homecoming, and their curiosity will be aroused by the guarded comments of his contemporaries of fifty years ago. As one distinguished member of his class said, "Don Fraser was by far the best student in our class of 1930 and excelled in anything he attempted." He was a member of the "infamous Dumphey boarding house gang at 230 Regent Street" and, in 1928 -- with flaming red hair and looking like a Viking warrior -- he delivered the funeral oration, in verse, at the annual burning of the textbook on analytical geometry on a flaming wagon. He excelled at track meets and, in the cryptic words of another contemporary, "liked to throw the sixteen pound shot and other things."

But, on this occasion, we must leave the anecdotes, which will no doubt flow in full and more privately during the next two days, and publicly honour Mr. Donald Fraser who has brought so much honour to his old university.

lnsignissime Praeses, tota Universitas, praesento vobis Donaldum Blake Fraser ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia in hac Universitate.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2