Science News It was established with the mission to counter disinformation by providing accurate information about science. Kendrick Frazier devoted his entire life to this cause. It was a sad day to hear of his sudden death in November at the age of 80. He was one of my heroes. Science News’ proudest supporters, first as a reader, then starting in 1969 as a reporter covering mostly earth sciences and then as editor in chief.
After Frazier left Science News He spent many years as editor at the Skeptical InquirerBut he never left the area. Science News family. “Being at Science News was my dream, since I had been a reader for many, many years as a young person,” Frazier told Maria TemmingAssistant editor Science News ExploresShe interviewed him during her research on the History of Science NewsFor our centennial (SN: 3/26/22, p. 16).
He was especially proud of our rigorous (some might say obsessive) standards of accuracy: “It’s a quality, reliable, respectable science news source,” he told Temming, “and I’ve always been proud of it, because we always — and you always — put scientific discoveries in perspective.”
Frazier sent me a warm and encouraging email when I was elected editor-in-chief in 2018. Frazier was an avid reader of every word that we published and I enjoyed our phone conversations and e-mails. We spoke about how Science News The 1970s covered politically sensitive issues. It also covered how we managed the challenges of covering the climate change pandemic and the rise in misinformation around those issues. For example, the falsehood that COVID-19 vaccinations cause infertility.
Reporting is actually a good thing. Science News is what helped spark Frazier’s interest in challenging disinformation, Temming says. In 1976, he covered a meeting where astronomer Carl Sagan, psychologist B.F. Skinner, science fiction author Isaac Asimov and other luminaries pledged to give the public “access to facts by which they can judge the validity of unusual claims.” The cover art for Frazier’s article (at left) is mind-bending (this was the ’70s, after all). Do you like it? You can buy it on a T-shirt at www.societyforscience.org/store
Frazier will be dearly missed, for both his deep insights as well as his unfailing kindness. His delight in our work, and the work of all science journalists, will remain in my heart forever. His joy in fighting against propagandists and charlatans will always be with me. It was the joy of winning a well-fought battle.
