Ursula Maria (Martius) Franklin (1921 - 2016)

Born 16 Sep 1921 in München, Bayern, Deutsches Reich

Ancestors

Wife of Fred Franklin — married 1952 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Died 22 Jul 2016 at age 94 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Biography

Ursula Maria (Martius) Franklin is Notable.

Ursula Martius Franklin was a German-Canadian physicist, university professor, feminist and social activist.

Born in 1921 in Munich, she was the only child of Ilse Maria Sperling, an art historian and Albrecht Martius, an archaeologist.

In 1952 she married Fred Franklin; they had a son and a daughter.

After earning her Ph.D. in experimental physics in Berlin, she became a senior scientist at the Ontario Research Foundation in 1951. She was the first woman to become Professor of Metallurgy and Materials Science at the University of Toronto, where she taught for more than forty years.

Dr. Franklin was a well-known political and social activist. A survivor of a Nazi labour camp, she once wrote: "There were so many people who perished, I didn't. The basic question is: How does one conduct a responsible life that really has been given by an accident of history? It could just as well have been given to somebody else, but you have it, and you'd better do something."

She received many honours and awards over her lifetime, including the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case for promoting the equality of Canadian women and the Pearson Medal of Peace for her work in advancing human rights. She was inducted into the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame in 2012. Ursula Franklin Academy, a Toronto high school, and Ursula Franklin Street on the University of Toronto campus are named in her honour. ^[1]

She passed away in 2016 and was buried at the Religious Society of Friends Burial Ground, Newmarket, York, Ontario.

Research Notes

• Legacy.com obituary
• Lead : Her full family tree on a german website

Sources

1. ↑ Ursula Franklin Street renaming ceremony.

• The Canadian Encyclopedia

• Valpy, M., Special to The Globe,and Mail. (2016, Jul 27). Scientist had a passion for peace. The Globe and Mail (1936-) Retrieved from ProQuest.

• Ursula Martius Franklin (1921-2016) on Find A Grave: Memorial #182250598 retrieved 14 January 2018

• Wikipedia: Ursula Franklin