Family

Things you might not know about Geoff

Geoff’s accomplishments in the academic sphere in Economics are well known judging from all the lovely testimonials from his past colleagues and students from around the world.

But there are a few other aspects to his life that many people may not know and may come as a surprise.

First, Geoff is not really a ‘Harcourt’ but really a ‘Harkowitz’. Whilst researching a history book using the marvellous Trove series from the National Library of Australia (Home – Trove (nla.gov.au)) I stumbled upon some family history, about our family origins. Geoff’s grandfather Israel Harkowitz came to Australia from Romania (from Transylvania that causes some to link Dracula, blood suckers and the Economics Profession!) in the 19^th century and set up a series of General Stores in the NSW Country with his wife Dinah Berger from Poland (who he met in Australia) and her brother Daniel Berger. Daniel had a paddle steamer “The Wandering Jew” that sold goods up and down NSW inland rivers to the family’s General Stores (its remnants were found during the recent Drought Shipwrecked at Brewarrina: Drought reveals historic Wandering Jew paddle steamer – ABC News thanks to cousin Pierre Harcourt for the news item).

Geoff’s father Kopel Harkowitz (Poppy to us) was born in Lismore where Israel had the local general store (I Harkowitz Northern Rivers Price Reducer! said the ads) and the family grew up in various NSW country towns often leaving hurriedly (to make sudden insurance claims due to fire) and ended up in Sydney. Kopel and his brother Sam Harkowitz changed the family name to Harcourt in 1924 (it was said so they could join the famous Bondi Icebergs surf club and go “From the Goldbergs to the Icebergs” and the local golf club) but it was probably done for convenience.

Kopel had been a great Hebrew scholar in Sydney winning many prizes at the Great Synagogue, and was going to be a Rabbi, but his atheism made that career choice a bit difficult. He became a professional punter (Sam and he had a racing show on radio named after them called “The Racing Harcourts”), a railway clerk, insurance salesman and later a leather merchant. Kopel Harkowitz (by then Ken Harcourt) settled in Melbourne after fleecing the bookies with Sam in Perth and married Geoff’s mother, Marjorie Rahel Gans, the daughter of German Jewish immigrant Daniel Gans, a notorious High Court litigant and Edith Lillian Isaacs, a Lithuanian Jewish family related to the first Australian born Governor General Sir Isaac Isaacs. This began the line of Harcourts starting with Ken and Sam, and ending so far with my daughter Yunshi Harcourt  and son Jhen. Yunshi invented ‘the Harcourt list’, which puts Ken at 1, Sam at 2, Geoff at 7 (just pipped by 15 minutes by his elder twin brother John at 6), Yunshi herself at 18 and Jhen at 19. It’s a hard list to get on. In fact, you’ve got more chance of getting into the Bondi Icebergs.

Second, Geoff was a late bloomer. Despite his later academic success, Geoff did his matric (Year 12) three times and got into Melbourne University on his third go. This was a tough time, as his twin brother was (and is) exceptionally bright and was Dux (highest academic achiever) of the school. Of course, at Melbourne University where Geoff studied Commerce and lived at Queens College, that all changed and he thrived intellectually. He credits his Queens tutor, Joe Isaac, Economics Professor and later Deputy President of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, as one of the reasons for his success at Melbourne. Joe was a great mentor and a very kind friend.

Third, Geoff was not just about being a scholar he was also very active in politics and policy. As the testimonial from Peter Duncan, South Australia’s Attorney General (at the age of 28, the youngest ever in Australian history!) highlights, Geoff was a political activist chairing the Campaign for Peace in Vietnam (CPV) and other social and political causes in the South Australian branch of the

Australian Labor Party (ALP). Peter showed me a picture of Geoff speaking at a rally in 1968 calling for a fairer electoral distribution in SA after the Dunstan Government failed to win the election despite receiving over 53 per cent of the popular vote (an election when Joan Harcourt herself was a candidate!).

In fact, following in his wife’s footsteps, Geoff himself was asked to be the ALP candidate in the 1969 Federal Election for the seat of Sturt. He knocked it back and trade union official ‘Stormy Normie’ Foster won the seat for Labor in Gough Whitlam’s huge swing against John Gorton that almost brought the ALP to power. In fact, Sturt went back to the Liberal fold in 1972, in the It’s Time election, the only seat to change hands against the Whitlam tide!

In the Whitlam Government, when Dr Jim Cairns was Treasurer, he asked Geoff (who was sitting in the back of a Commonwealth car between Jim and Junie Morosi) if he wanted to be Governor of the Reserve Bank or Secretary of the Treasury. Geoff says he may have said “You know me Jim, I am a real man not a money man,” but admitted later that sitting next to Junie Morosi wasn’t the ideal environment for rational decision making.

After the Dismissal in 1975, Geoff was on the Committee of Inquiry into the ALP with John Button and Neal Blewett and others. This did the spade work for Labor’s return to power under Bob Hawke. Of course in 1982, just as Labor was about to win, Geoff left the country to live in Mrs Thatcher’s Britain! He always joked that he was always in the UK when Australian Labor Party was in power and in Australia when the UK Labour Party was in power!

In the period, Geoff was also a witness for the United Trade and Labour Council (UTLC) in the State Wage Case. As a High school boy I used to attend the hearings and this set me on my path to work for the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) in National Wage Cases. According to Jim Douglas, Geoff often gave seminars especially for trade union workshops that were well attended and taught with enthusiasm!

Fourth, Geoff, though he was not a professional, sport was very important to him. Geoff loved playing Aussie Rules football for the Adelaide University Football Club and ran the boundary when his playing days were over. Ironically, before marrying Geoff, Joan has dated Alan Hopgood who wrote a play “And the Big Men Fly” which is probably the most famous play written about Australian Rules Football along with ‘The Club” by David Williamson.

Equally Geoff loved playing cricket for the Adelaide University Cricket Club and of course in Cambridge on proper English turf wickets! I played with him one English Summer when I was 14, and playing in delightful English conditions sure beat 40 plus temperatures in Adelaide on hard wickets with sledging (no wonder Australia won the Ashes a lot then!) He wasn’t a natural sportsman but tried hard and had great standard of fitness playing footy into his 40s and cricket into his 60s. Whilst sport was great fun and camaraderie for Geoff, it had a serious side. He once wrote an article about anti-Semitism at school when he was growing up and that he and his cousin Richard were only considered to be “half Yids” because they played sport and weren’t swots like the other more intellectual Jewish kids. Playing sport was very important to Geoff’s sense of belonging to the country he was born in.

Fifthly, Geoff was once a rock star! Thanks to the creative genius of Fred ‘Chocka’ Bloch Adelaide University Economics and Commerce Christmas Parties were extravaganzas (produced by FAB productions – FAB standing for Frederick Archibald Bloch). One year Suzi Quatro was touring and Fred convinced Geoff to dress up as Suzi in a wetsuit (donated by my brother Rob) and sing “I’m all shook up”. Other years, Fred had Geoff dress up as Frank Sinatra during Sinatra’s disastrous tour of Australia that saw him black banned by the trade unions, and another year he put a custard tart in the face of Australian Rock Music legend Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum (all staged for the cameras of course). I met Molly in the United Arab Emirates some 30 plus years later and he confirmed the story!

Finally, despite not being the most sartorially elegant of dressers, Geoff always shined his shoes to an impeccable standard. It might have been a legacy his father being a leather merchant, and he always bought high quality leather shoes that lasted decades. In fact, one time he wore new shoes when dropping my brother Rob off at Unley High, but accidentally walked in a puddle. This upset him and he stamped up and down yelling “F*** F*** F***” outside the School just as the Headmaster walked past on his way to his office.

I didn’t see Geoff very much from 1982 to 2010, but by chance when he and Joan returned to Australia I was appointed to the University of New South Wales (UNSW) where my younger sister Becky and my wife Jo were already employed and Geoff was a Visiting Fellow (UNSW was said to have a ‘Harcourt Quota’). So I could have coffee or lunch with Geoff almost any day I wasn’t at an airport (these were pre COVID times). This reunion was nicely written up by Peter Martin in “The 2 of Us’” in the magazine of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Peter Martin Economics: The two of us: Geoff and Tim Harcourt and also by Michael Visontay for “One on One” for UNSW Magazine https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/general/one-one

After such nice words, by two fine journalists, in Peter and Michael, no more needs to be said.