Abstract
To commemorate the 80th birthday, 24 August 1984, of Eric Ashby, a member of our Editorial Board since its inception, we are here publishing his A. H. Compton Memorial Lecture, presented, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, on 13 May 1964. The facts and figures in the lecture have not been revised to bring them up to date. Compton a physicist and Nobel Laureate, had become the President of his University, just as Ashby, a botanist had become a Vice-Chancellor of two Universities. Each had won international recognition in his field, each had served his government with distinction in peace and war, and each left his laboratory to become an administrator.
Ashby's tribute to Compton was published locally at the time by Washington University and may therefore be unknown to many. It presents the distillation of a lifetime's experience and is a relevant today as it was 20 years ago; it deserves the widest readership. Ashby was the head of many commissions in Great Britain, Australia and Africa concerned with science and higher education and he gained deep insight into the influence of western universities on non-European societies. At the end of his Memorial Lecture, Ashby attributes to Compton humility, tolerance, a faith in science and its ethical principles, and, especially, a world view unlimited by nationality, language or race. These same attributes characterise the wisdom and life of Eric Ashby.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.