Fraser Cowley

Academic, translator and foreign correspondent

Fraser Cowley, academic. Born: 3 March ,1924, in Dundee. Died: 5 December, 2017, in Canada, aged 93.

George Fraser Cowley was born in Dundee on 3 March, 1924, and moved to Edinburgh’s New Town to attend George Watson’s College School for Boys.

Fraser entered the University of Edinburgh only to leave after one year because of the war; he served as a sergeant in the British Army, posted in India and Burma. On returning, he worked as a foreign correspondent for The Scotsman but persisted with his study of philosophy, eventually completing his PHD at the University of Edinburgh.

Fluent in French and German, he then worked as a simultaneous translator for the British Foreign Service at Wilton Park, England. But his true calling was philosophy, and he immigrated to Canada to become a professor, first at the University of New Brunswick and then at Queen’s University in Kingston.

After an interlude at New York University he moved to Toronto in 1973 as chair of the philosophy department at York University and continued to teach there, including at Glendon College, until his retirement in 1995.

He wrote two books, Critique of British Empiricism (1968) and Metaphysical Delusion (1991). Fraser was a renowned teacher and it was often said of him that he would die with chalk in his hands. But on meeting and marrying Nan Fairley (widow of the scholar and painter Barker Fairley), he came to his senses and put the chalk aside. They then divided their time between Edinburgh, Toronto, and Wellington on the shores of Lake Ontario.

Although he never had children of his own, he was a devoted uncle to his one niece, Eleanor Thornton, and formed close ties with Nan’s extended family over their 25 years together.

Notwithstanding several hospital ordeals, Fraser remained cheerful until the end, showing courage and equanimity. He died on 5 December at the age of 93. MARGARET SCHABAS