Vale Dr Graeme William Starr
Hanna and I are terribly saddened by the passing of Dr Graeme Starr on 24 March 2021. Graeme was a truly great and inspirational Australian and a close friend of our family.
Dr Starr was a highly accomplished political scientist, former Director of the NSW Liberal Party, Research Officer at the Federal Liberal Secretariat, chief of staff to a senior federal Coalition cabinet minister, Ian Sinclair, and to John Howard. He was also the author of many books including the well regarded, “The Liberal Party of Australia. A Documentary History” published in 1980. A short article about Dr Starr’s life by Dr Scott Prasser can be found at https://www.menziesrc.org/news-feed/graeme-starr
We first met Dr Starr and his family in Armidale, NSW where he was a senior lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of New England. At the time I was working on my Ph.D. thesis in the neighbouring Department of Sociology and we immediately found a common interest in the governance of Communist Poland and the emerging “Solidarity” revolution, the politics of, and social trends in, the United States of America and closer to home, the Whitlam dismissal. Beverley and Graeme were also the first Anglo Australian family who kindly invited us (a very new migrants) to their home for a dinner. Over the years we built a strong friendship living nearby to each other in Armidale, Canberra and then Sydney.
Graeme will be sadly missed by his family, friends and all those he inspired alike. His contribution to our nation is timeless. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family, in particular to Bev, Kimberley and Sam.
It was a great honour to have known him and we will cherish his memory forever.
Graeme’s funeral service was held in the beautiful St Pauls Church in Burwood NSW on Wednesday, 31 March – a very appropriate place as Graeme had just finished documenting the history of the Church. His contribution to Australian political discourse, his love of democratic principles and the Liberal Party and perhaps most importantly, his generosity of spirit, will not be forgotten.
Starr and Ozdowski families, Armidale, NSW, 1979
Dr Sev Ozdowski, Dr Graeme Starr and Dr Scott Prasser in Vincentia, NSW in 2017