Happy 100th Birthday

By Ivan Sammut | Posted: Sunday March 15, 2020

Prof Fred Fastier celebrated his 100th Birthday on Friday 13 March. Fred is very much an Otago boy and was schooled at Otago Boys' High School from 1932-36.

He graduated with a Masters in Chemistry from Otago University during the days of the Great Depression and was then offered a research position by Sir Horace Smirk, the newly appointed Chair of Medicine. 

As a chemist, he became interested in pharmacological research and was awarded a Beit Memorial Fellowship. He was awarded a DPhil at Oxford studying with many of the luminaries of Pharmacology, including Paton and Burns, and then went on to work at Edinburgh with Gaddum and then onto New York. He returned to Otago in 1952 as Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology. 

Fred taught pharmacology at the University of Otago from this time until 1980. In 1969, he was appointed as the foundation Chair of newly formed department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy. In this role he was key in the development of the first pharmacy curriculum in New Zealand. He has written a number of
historical accounts on the University. He retired early as head of Pharmacology but never really left, continuing to attend departmental seminars until relatively recently. In retirement, Fred went back to become a student once again, gaining an MA in Philosophy. 

Many happy returns Fred.