The History Council of NSWs’ Executive Member, Emeritus Professor David Carment, has provided the following tribute to Dr Heather Radi.
Many historians in Australia were saddened to learn of Heather Radi’s death on 18 May 2016.
She was held in high regard as a teacher of Australian history at the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney. Her research and writing ranged quite widely but as a feminist she had a particular interest in Australian women’s history. In 1975 she was the first woman appointed to the Australian Dictionary of Biography’s board. She worked hard to increase the proportion of women in the dictionary. Heather was also much involved in bicentennial history projects, including her edited book Australian Women: A Redress Anthology (1988), and in the formation of the Professional Historians Association in New South Wales. She was a valued mentor of early career historians.
In 2001 Heather received the History Council of New South Wales’s Annual History Citation for ‘her devotion to Australian history not only as a scholar, but also as an organiser of ideas and events and a supporter of younger scholars’.
She will be long remembered.
I was one of her history students.