Campbell Fraser, PhD
1969 - 2021
To those of us who knew him, Dr. Campbell Fraser was first and foremost a compassionate and generous human being. Despite his considerable professional accomplishments and expertise in matters of utmost global urgency, he was easy to engage personally, a lively travel companion, and charitable with technology. He was an animal-lover.
Yet he was also brilliant. Although his three degrees were in engineering (BS first class Manchester; MA Tokyo Institute of Technology; PhD Queensland University of Australia), in the years before his untimely death his interests leaned toward social problems on the global stage. Hence, as a professor at Griffiths University he taught courses not only on business ethics and technology strategy, but also on intercultural studies, migration studies, and new religious movements. His extensive publication trajectory (approximately 50 articles) also reflects this shift. Whereas he began publishing articles in the 1990s on business management and marketing, his last articles were distinctly global in focus, concerning, for instance, worker migrations in Asia, distinct cultural attitudes regarding organ transplantation, and of course the global market for human organ trafficking, on which he was perhaps the world's foremost expert.
As such an expert, Dr. Fraser famously researched organ trafficking as it was linked with human trafficking and other criminal activities. To this end he conducted fieldwork in 28 countries, including areas of the world devastated by war, famine, and religious unrest. At considerable personal risk, he was able to investigate and even record incidents of illegal organ transplantation, as well as to investigate false claims thereof. Based on this experience, he provided consultancy services to national health authorities, law enforcement agencies and government bodies, and served on the advisory boards of several advocacy and non-governmental organizations. He presented his research before international bodies, including the World Health Organization and the World Bank. Because of his commitment to this area of research, Dr Fraser developed protocols for proactively combating human and organ trafficking, and implemented investigative and reporting mechanisms to verify claims of such activity. His specific interest in the link between organ trafficking and activities of cult-like groups rendered him a target of some of those groups, who agitated against him professionally, but Dr. Fraser continued to report his research in numerous interviews and publications. For a summary of his experience with these groups, see, for instance, “Interview with Campbell Fraser 2019-2020” (Journal of Religion and Violence 8(3) 2020).
Dr. Fraser's interest in organ transplantation was not abstract. He had, as we say, skin in the game, being an organ-transplant survivor himself. He was donated a kidney in 2003, a year after he learned of his own kidney cancer. Indeed, it was during the weeks and months of dialysis prior to his gifted kidney that Dr. Fraser became intrigued with the science of organ transplantation, the world of organ marketing, and the criminal underbelly of that world. He recounted his story to the editors of the Journal of Religion and Violence, as mentioned above. That interview is linked here: https://doi.org/10.5840/jrv20208380
Dr. Fraser’s work did not go unnoticed. He won a handful of awards, among them the 2016 Interpol Technology Against Crime Award, the 2016 Transnational Terrorism and Crime Centre Award, the 2000 Sam Walton Fellowship, the 1993 Mombusho Scholarship, and the 1993 Powel Powpowski Memorial Award. He was a full member of several professional societies, among them the Transplantation Society, The International Society for Organ Donation, the Chartered Institute of Building, and the Australian Institute of Management.
Dr. Fraser was taken suddenly and unexpectedly in the sanctuary of his own home on June 26, 2021.
The
cause
of death is currently unknown.
Dr. Fraser was truly loved and adored by those who knew him. A fighter to the end, he will be
missed.
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