Gerard Leckie

Gerard Leckie (1943 to 1982) was a Surinamese psychologist, teacher and dean at the University of Suriname. He taught there, was dean of the socio-economic faculty and chaired the Association for Scientific Personnel of the University of Suriname. He studied psychology and took his doctorate at the University of Nijmegen, where his work on the development of social cognition in children included studies of role-taking ability and of the effect of role-playing on sharing and helping in preschoolers. In December 1982 the military regime of Desi Bouterse saw him as an instigator of student and trade union protests, and he was arrested and killed in Fort Zeelandia with fourteen other opponents in what are known as the December murders.