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T. T. Paterson

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Thomas Thompson Paterson
Born(1909-09-29)29 September 1909
Died9 April 1994(1994-04-09) (aged 84)
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge (PhD)
Years active1930s–?
Children2

Thomas Thomson Paterson (29 September 1909 – 9 April 1994) was a Scottish archaeologist, palaeontologist, geologist, glaciologist, geographer, anthropologist, ethnologist, sociologist, and world authority on administration.[1] He was curator of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge from 1937 to 1948.

Birth and education

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Paterson was born in Buckhaven in Fife on 29 September 1909, and was educated at Buckhaven High School. He studied science at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with a BSc.[2] He then studied for a PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge, one of only a handful of research students there at the time, and became a Fellow of the college upon receiving his degree.[3][4] Alec Cairncross, a fellow Scot who first knew Paterson whilst an economics student at Trinity, remembered him as "always bubbling over with ideas" and combining "entertainment and erudition".[4]

Family

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In 1938, he married Elna Johanne Hygen. He had two children, Dr Erik Paterson and Kirsty Paterson.

Career

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In the 1930s, Paterson participated in several Arctic expeditions,[5] during which time he collected many string figures, leading to his 1949 article, "Eskimo String Figures and Their Origin," Acta Arctica 3:1-98. He also participated in expeditions to East Africa, India, Greenland and Northern Canada.[3]

In 1937, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Thomas James Jehu, Gordon Childe, James Pickering Kendall, and Thomas Matthew Finlay.[2]

A trouble-shooter for the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, after which he studied industrial relations in the British National Coal Board in detail.[3]

While at the University of Glasgow in the Department of Social and Economic Research he founded Methectics, now Methexis.[3] He then transferred to the University of Strathclyde and built its School of Administration to the largest in Europe.[3] He spent time researching in South Africa before moving to Canada.[3]

Death

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He died on 9 April 1994 at Lions Gate Hospital in Vancouver in Canada.[2]

Bibliography

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  • Morale in War and Work: An experiment in the management of men (1955). Max Parrish, London.
  • Glasgow Limited: a case-study in industrial war and peace (1960). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  • Management Theory (1966). Business Publications Limited, London.
  • Job Evaluation: Volume 1 - A New Method (1972). Business Books Limited, London.
  • Job Evaluation: Volume 2 - A Manual for the Paterson Method (1972). Business Books Limited, London.

Further reading

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  • Paterson, Dr. E. T. (1996). "Thomas Thomson Paterson (obit.)", Yearbook of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1289.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Thomas Thomson Paterson (1909 - 1994)". workscienceinstitute.com. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  2. ^ a b c Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Who was Thomas Thomson Paterson?", WorkScienceInstitute.com.
  4. ^ a b Alec Cairncross, Living with the Century (Fife: iynx, 1999), p. 26. ISBN 0953541304
  5. ^ "String Figure Magazine" Volume 3, number 1 (March 1998), ISFA.org.