Bios

David Fraser

Since Sailor daze:

Ahh, the most memorable days of tennis and Ambassador Dance Band, Sailor Circus band, basketball, and American History. I missed graduation since I skipped Senior year fun and went to college early, graduating in absentia. Missed good times with David Butcher, Bunky Bartlett, Jack Bartlett, Marilyn Myer, Madge Kempton – and so many others. Most early years were education: biblical studies at Columbia International University, Anthropology at Stanford, doctoral work in Sociology at Harvard, theological studies at Fuller Seminary, and doctoral work in ethics at Vanderbilt University.

I worked for the Christian humanitarian organization, World Vision for three and a half years and the travel changed my worldview. I served as pastor for four years as a Presbyterian clergy. Most of the rest of my life was in University teaching (Columbia International University for 4 years). Most recently I was at

Eastern University (St. Davids, Pennsylvania just outside Philadelphia) for 22 years in two departments: Sociology and Christian Studies. I’ve been associated with African International University in Nairobi, Kenya since 1988 – and spent one full semester there in 1999 as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in addition to teaching short term courses over the years and helping inaugurate the PhD program.

At the end of my University career at Eastern I was in administration, first as founding Dean of the School of International Leadership and Development and then Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Following that I was the Academic Vice President and Provost of the University.

My wife, Elouise (to whom I’ve been married since 9/11/1965) was the one Dean who could not report to me, as Professor of Theology and Dean of Palmer Theological Seminary, the seminary of Eastern University. We are a pair’o’docs with lots of books scattered around the house here in Pennsylvania. We have two great children (one a rock musician; the other the CTO of a medium sized computer software company he co-founded) and three grandchildren. The picture on the right is of Elouise and myself a year ago.

I stepped down from University work three years ago and went to work for an Leader Development agency I cofounded in the early 1990s, Development Associates International (www.daintl.org). I am currently having a ball, managing a Master’s program in Organizational Leadership. We partner with overseas Christian universities and currently are connected with 13 institutions with 621 active students. I teach two to three times a year plus work on new partnerships (we just signed Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Nepal), curriculum (our program is blended with one week residencies and distance elements), and staff development.
I enjoy the travel and the people I meet! The picture on the right is the first cohort of MA students in Kenya to whom I taught “Leadership.” I seem always to be the “whitest” guy around!
I’m still writing and have several projects underway. I have co-authored two books (Sociology Through the Eyes of Faith, HarperSanFrancisco; Planning Strategies for World Evangelization, Eerdmans) and edited five others. Just don’t have enough time for all there is still to read and write about! Trips to Egypt, Uganda, and South Africa on the docket for the rest of this year.