A series of unbelievable coincidences
We were sad to hear of the death of Dr Frank Steven, (BSc 1955, PhD 1958) in December. Here his daughter Barbara Kirby (PhD 1987) describes how a series of unbelievable coincidences brought him to St Andrews, where meeting the love of his life led to a change of degree course and a groundbreaking career.
It was due to a series of unbelievable coincidences that our father Frank was accepted to study Chemistry at the University of St Andrews. As an unexpected second twin, Frank arrived in poor shape and was not expected to survive. The care and quick thinking of his grandmother, a trained nurse, saved his life.
His grandparents’ youngest son, Lyn, died of meningitis shortly before finishing school and the money that had been set aside for his higher education was transferred to support Frank and his brother John through Bedford School.
Academic challenges
Frank was not academically strong and struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia, although was excellent on the sports field. At the age of 15, he realised that if he wrote in exceptionally small letters, people would assume he had spelt the words correctly. Still, he had no hope of completing secondary school with the grades required for university.
An uncle, who was in charge of Shell Burma, visited the family and upon discovering that Frank’s chances of a university education were next to none, offered to fund him through higher education, provided he could gain a place. With the support of a frustrated chemistry master, Frank applied for and sat a single A Level in chemistry that year.
A surprise from St Andrews
The coincidences continued and a neighbour’s daughter who was studying science at St Andrews told Frank there was no requirement for Latin in Scottish universities and that she’d lend him her red gown if he managed to get in.
Frank applied to the University of St Andrews before even sitting his chemistry exam. To his surprise and delight, he received an unconditional offer.
It was only after he arrived that Frank was called to the Dean’s office and it was explained to him that after he had applied, but before his application had been processed, the former Dean had died. A new Dean had been appointed and not knowing his way around his new office functions, sent Frank a letter of acceptance.
As a result, Frank received four years of student grants from Bedford Local Authority. His tuition fees had been paid. It was unlikely that he would pass his first year, having no maths or physics A Levels, but he determined to grasp this incredible opportunity this both hands.
The greatest stroke of luck
His greatest stroke of luck was yet to come. On the first day of the 1951 academic year, the semester started with a service in St Salvator’s Chapel. He knew this to be a formal occasion at which a red gown would be required, but he had not yet had the opportunity to collect his loan.
Frank arrived without it and was refused entry for being ‘improperly dressed’. He was told to wait in the Quad, where he was joined by a young female student, also without a gown.
Inger Grøn Lund had grown up in Oslo and excelled at school. She was a gifted linguist. Life in Oslo was hard during the war years, food was scarce, and people were killed if suspected of not supporting the occupiers. When Inger reached the end of her schooling, she set off for London to spend six months improving her English, having previously had to study German.
An unpaid job in London as a student technician in the biochemistry lab at Hammersmith Hospital set Inger on her path to study the subject at St Andrews. It was one of the few universities that offered the course at the time.
No words were exchanged in the Quad that day, but Inger made a deep impression on Frank. She later appeared in his chemistry practicals and was allocated the bench opposite.
From chemistry to biochemistry
At the start of their second year, Frank and Inger crossed paths once more. Frank was so keen to maintain contact with Inger that he begged the University authorities to allow him to transfer his degree from chemistry to biochemistry. They agreed on one condition: that he would have to gain first class honours to be able to graduate with a degree in biochemistry – anything less and he would leave with no degree at all. The stakes could not have been higher. But all’s well that ends well: he achieved his first-class degree, went on to complete a PhD at St Andrews and married Inger, the love of his life, in Oslo in 1955.
Frank and Inger at St Andrews on gaining their degrees
Groundbreaking medical advances
In the years that followed, Frank moved to the University of Manchester where he was initially head of the connective tissue group in the Department of Medical Biochemistry (later the Department of Biochemistry). He gained a DSc from Manchester at the age of just 36, achieving tenure and earning the freedom to pursue his academic interests by becoming a Reader in Biochemistry. He published 230 peer-reviewed papers in the next few years alone.
Frank began his academic life studying the 3D structure of ovalbumin, describing conformational changes and studying the structure of collagen before moving on to the kinetics of trypsin-like enzymes found on the surfaces of cells. He was one of the first scientists to use fluorescent markers to measure enzyme activity and hoped to specifically link this to cancerous cells.
Frank working in the lab
Frank was delighted to learn, in the months before his death, that this technology had been developed and refined to enable specific labelling of individual prostate cancer cells, allowing them to be selectively removed in the operating theatre – a groundbreaking advance in medical science whose foundations were laid by his work 60 years ago.
Our father was an exceptional scientist who followed the data rather than conventional thinking and created many waves because of it. He impacted the lives of hundreds of medical students passing through the University of Manchester Medical School during his lectures, as well as helping to tutor those who required additional support prior to resits. He always worried that these students might be the very doctors who were treating him as he grew older, and so he wanted them to know their stuff!
Family life together
When he wasn’t researching or teaching, Frank was a keen walker and an avid bird watcher – usually with a flask of coffee at hand. Inger and Frank’s first outing beyond the lab at St Andrews was to Cameron Reservoir to watch the barnacle geese.
Frank pursuing his lifelong passion for bird watching
Throughout their married life, Frank and Inger would take their children for walks every Sunday, regardless of the weather, and bird watching was an integral part of this, as was having a flask of coffee in hand. Inger would plan the route and navigate – without her lead, these walks had a tendency to go awry. He would be the first to acknowledge that Inger would always be steering the joint canoe!
Inger and Frank
My sisters Anne, Wendy and I will miss him greatly, as will his nine grandchildren and his four great grandchildren.
Giving back: scholarship support
Both Dr Frank Steven and Inger Lund were passionate about helping the next generation of students to thrive. Frank’s donation to endow a scholarship in his wife’s name is testament to this. At his daughters’ request, the scholarship has now been renamed the Dr Frank Steven and Inger Lund Wardlaw Scholarship in his memory.
Frank’s generosity will ensure that a gifted student is able to fulfil their potential at St Andrews. Read below how this scholarship has transformed a student’s life.
‘I come from a different background to most others at university after completing a Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP) access course. I’m a single dad. My daughter is four years old and she’s the reason I came back to education – to allow me to grow, progress and provide a better future for us both.
‘I use my scholarship to cover my monthly mortgage payment. This means that I don’t have to work part time and allows me to spend as much of my non-study time as possible with my daughter.
‘My eventual plans are to provide business consulting for small-medium size businesses. I also aim to start a not-for-profit charity that inspires and educates teenagers from a similar background to myself about entrepreneurship and show them alternative routes to success.
‘Thank you. Without your generosity I don’t think this journey would be possible, or at least it would be a very different experience for myself and my family. I hope to one day be in a position to pay it forward to help someone like myself.’
Dr Frank Steven and Inger Lund Wardlaw Scholar
Further information
Hamdy et al, 2024 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00259-024-06713-x, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-024-06713-x