Sir Fred Schonell was an Australian educationist, and vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland

University of Queensland

The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...

 from 1960 to 1969.

He wrote two series of books for children. The Happy Venture series, noted for the characters Dick and Dora, and the Wide Range series, were written from the late 1930s till the early '50s. Both were widely used as school books throughout the British Commonwealth for many years later. Eleanor and others contributed to the series, and it has been claimed they were plagiarised by the US based Dick and Jane

Dick and Jane

Dick and Jane were the main characters in popular basal readers written by William S. Gray and Zerna Sharp and published by Scott Foresman, that were used to teach children to read from the 1930s through to the 1970s in the United States...

 authors.

He was knighted in 1962.

Legacy

Many buildings on the University of Queensland campus are named after him and his wife, Lady (Eleanor) Schonell

Eleanor Schonell Bridge

The Eleanor Schonell Bridge, better known as the Green Bridge, is a 390-metre -long cable-stayed bridge which crosses the Brisbane River between Dutton Park and the University of Queensland's St Lucia campus. Its deck is 185 metres long, 20 metres wide and about 18 metres above the river's surface...

. St Lucia Road, which leads to the university campus, was renamed in his honour as Sir Fred Schonell Drive.

See Also