Vale Frank Strahan: (19302003)
[ UniNews Vol. 12, No. 22
1 - 15 December 2003 ] Juliet Flesch and Peter McPhee
Frank Strahan (right) was a well-known and loved personality who made a durable contribution to the history of the University of Melbourne and the wider community.
As University Archivist (19601995), heading a small unit which was for many years independent of and distinct from both the library system and management of University records, he oversaw the creation, management and use of a vital part of the Universitys research resource.
The University Archives has had many addresses, moving from various Parkville houses and storage sites on the way to its present location in Dawson Street, Brunswick. Frank Strahan forced many of these relocations through his success in attracting deposits of archives, initially from Victorian businesses, from University departments, societies and staff and, beginning in the mid-1970s, from trade unions.
He collected records of all kinds of enterprises, including those of mining companies, such as Western Mining Co, North Broken Hill Ltd and others of the Collins House group, as well as the archives of other Australian companies such as Swallow & Ariell Ltd, Foy & Gibson and Hicks Atkinson.
Involved with the National Trust for many years, Frank Strahan served on its Building Committee from 1961 and chaired its Town Planning and General Advisory Committee from 1970 to 1975. He was associated particularly with the restoration and conservation of Beechworth and with photographs of buildings in Historic Buildings of Victoria.
The National Trust honoured his contribution by making him an Honorary Life Member in 1995. In the same year he was made a Fellow of the Australian Society of Archivists, a high honour as the number of living Fellows is limited to 12.
Frank Strahan was a longstanding member of the Carlton Association and his interests extended beyond the built environment: for many years, writing as Wacker, he contributed the football column to the Melbourne Times.
Two of his children are graduates of the University of Melbourne, one of whom, Lachlan Strahan, is a diplomat and author of Australias China: Changing Perceptions from the 1930s to the 1990s.
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