Laurence Patrick Lee

Laurence Patrick "Laurie" Lee (1913 – 28 January 1985) was a New Zealand mathematician, geodesist, and cartographer who was the Chief Computer for the Department of Lands and Survey and one of the foremost experts on (especially conformal) map projections.

In 1950, after reading about research psychologist William Kerr of Jersey, who claimed to have discovered a cure, Lee took a leave of absence from the Department of Lands and Survey and worked as an engineer's steward in return for passage to England on the Trojan Star.

Kerr's method involved pronouncing each syllable separately with a slight pause between, in a regular rhythm, with a result "described as mechanical, stilted, and artificial".

According to a newspaper report, after staying with Kerr for two weeks Lee considered himself effectively cured, with only a slight occasional stammer remaining.

[1] At the Department of Lands and Survey, Lee was involved with completing the First Order Geodetic Triangulation of New Zealand, and establishing the Geodetic Datum 1949; the change to metric units; and computations for the latitude and longitude program of the International Geophysical Year, 1957–1959.