Frederick Leckie, 84 a resident of Pelham Manor and New Rochelle, NY since 2005 passed away peacefully at Calvary Hospital, NY on Friday, 14th June 2013. He was 84.
Dr Leckie was born on 26th March 1929 in Dundee, Scotland, the second child of Frederick Leckie and Mary Barclay Leckie. He gained a B. Sc. Degree with First Class Honours in Engineering and was the Engineering Medalist at the University of St. Andrews in 1949. He then left Scotland to take up a position with Mott, Hay & Anderson in London followed by military service from 1951 to 1954 in the Royal Air Force where he was OCTU Sword of Honour winner. He next moved to the US and earned M.S. and Ph. D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1955 and 1958, where he met and married Elizabeth Wheelwright of Greenwich, CT, his wife for 43 years. Upon graduation he spent a year at the Technische Hochschule, Hanover, Germany and then ten years as a lecturer in Mechanical Sciences at the University of Cambridge and Director of Studies and Fellow of Pembroke College. From 1968 to 1978 he was the Professor of Engineering at the University of Leicester, England. For the next decade Fred was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Head of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and then from 1988 to 2005 as chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Public service included stints with the US and UK Departments of Energy, the UK Nuclear Inspectorate, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Euratom, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Pressure Research Council and numerous committees of the National Science Foundation. Awards included an honorary D. Sc. from the University of Leicester, the Nadai Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineering and the Halliburton Award from the University of Illinois. Fred’s publishing career spanned 50 years, over 150 journal articles and several books, the most recent published in 2009.
Fred is survived by his son Gavin and wife Elizabeth of Pelham Manor, NY and his son Gregor and wife Sylvia of Deerfield, IL and his six grandchildren Hamish, Catriona, Mia, Isabel, Angus and Elspeth, as well as sister in law Margaret Canada of Stamford CT and many nieces, nephews, cousins and close friends all over the world. His parents, wife and son Sean predeceased him.
Funeral services will be held at Christ Church, 1415 Pelhamdale Avenue, Pelham Manor, NY at 10am Friday 21st June, 2013 with lunch afterwards at 990 Edgewood Avenue, Pelham Manor. In lieu of flowers the family would like to suggest a contribution to the University of St Andrews American Foundation Inc. with a note for it to be applied to bursaries for Scottish students in memory of Professor F.A. Leckie.
Arrangements by Pelham Funeral Home, 64 Lincoln Avenue, Pelham 10803 (www.pelham-funeralhome.com) tel: 914 738 1060
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