Fonds 1291 - William Henry Fraser fonds

William Henry Fraser was born in Bond Head, Ontario, in 1853 and received his BA from the University of Toronto in 1880. Following several years on the staff at Upper Canada College, he was appointed lecturer in Italian and Spanish at the University of Toronto in 1887. In 1892 he was appointed associate professor, in 1901 professor. He died in York Mills on 28 December, 1916.

Professor Fraser was a prolific writer of textbooks, alone and in conjunction with John Squair (French) and William Henry Van der Smissen (German). They were used in schools in Ontario for more than two generations. A list of the titles is appended.

In 1883 he married Helene Zahn. They had two sons, William K. and Donald, and one daughter, Frieda Helen. Helen survived him for almost twenty years, dying suddenly on the New York to Toronto train in 1933.