Victor Serebriakoff 17/10/1912 -
1/1/2000.
Victor is best known for
his work with Mensa and the Mensa Foundation for Gifted Children.
But his work and influence extended beyond Mensa. He worked in the Timber
trade after leaving the army in 1947, and became well known in that field
mainly for the introduction of new technology into the processing of
timber. His principle development was the automatic grading of timber for
strength, which allowed for the more efficient structural use of timber.
Stress grading machines were sold world wide. Towards the end of his business
life he was working on a visual timber grader. He also developed
methods of finger jointing structural timber, and a saw plane, a circular saw blade
that left a smooth planed surface while cutting timber. In the 1960s he
led a British delegation to
Victor wrote many books,
some on the timber trade, some on Mensa and its history, some about educating
gifted children and many puzzle books. Many of these books were
translated into several languages. The work about which he felt the
greatest sense of achievement is his book called "Brain". In
this book he sets out a theory of how the brain operates, using a poly
hierarchical system of nodes that learn patterns by adjusting their sensitivity
to varying input patterns. The book sets out how the poly
hierarchical system could be used in organisations, where the nodes are people
or units. Attempts have been made over the last 15 years or so to write a
computer program using the ideas from the book, and recent work undertaken by
David Uings, looks very promising. I have been told that the ideas
contained in the book were ahead of their time and that many of the points made
in the book are being accepted by people working in the field now. The
book was published in 1975, though Victor annotated the book to the effect that
it had been written in 1964.
Victor joined Mensa in
1949, after encouragement from his first wife, Mary. At that time Mensa
was a small group of active members out of a few hundred members in
total. He did not get heavily involved at that time, being perhaps more
concerned with his young family. Then, while pregnant with their second child,
Mary was diagnosed with cancer of the tong. Mary died in July 1952 after
just 3 years of marriage and two children.
During Mary's illness
Victor had been assisted by Win Rouse, a Lady Almoner, or what would now be
referred to as a social worker. Coincidentally Victor had met Win before
- at Mensa meetings. After Mary's death Victor developed a relationship
with Win, and they married in October 1953.
Victors children went to
stay with Mary's mother in Southport, near
Victor's account of his
involvement with the organisation of Mensa is that Jo Wilson, the then
chairman, at one of the meetings, suggested that Mensa should be dropped saying
"Lets face it we are no more than a group of friends meeting for
dinners". Victor said it was a shame, and Jo said well it's up to
you then.
Victor started by placing
adverts and was overwhelmed with the response. Systems were set up to
manage the member ship enquiries, and an organisation was slowly built.
It was very hard work for them, I remember that at one stage they were marking
I.Q. tests at home themselves, and organising the Mensa Annual General Meeting
from home as well.
Gradually though Mensa grew
to a point where it could support paid staff. Mensa continued to grow and
Mensa's were starting up in many different countries. Mensa always
attracted publicity and Victor was often on radio and television through the
1960s, 70s, and 80s, in different countries.
Eventually Victor was
elected as International President of Mensa, an office that he still held at
his death. In the early 1990s Victor developed prostate cancer. He
fought against it, with various treatments and surgery, but is eventually
claimed him. He was working on his writings right up to December
1999. He managed to finish a revision of his "Brain" book. He died at about 10am on new years day. That
was his last ambition, to get to the new millennium, he just made it!
Mark Serebriakoff
6/10/2000