Crawford, John Grenfell

• Professor John Crawford
• Sir John Crawford AC CBE
• Jack Crawford

Sir John Grenfell (Jack) Crawford was born on 4 April 1910 at Hurstville, Sydney. From 1933 to 1935 he held a Walter and Eliza Hall research fellowship at the University of Sydney and was a part-time lecturer in rural economics 1934-1942. In 1942 he was appointed as rural adviser to the Commonwealth Department of War Organization of Industry, and the following year Director of research in the Department of Post-War Reconstruction. In 1945 he was founding Director of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics before becoming Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Commerce and Agriculture 1950-1956; Secretary of the Department of Trade 1956-1960. In 1960 he became Professor of Economics and Director of the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University (ANU) 1960-1967. He was appointed as Vice-Chancellor 1968-1973, then Chancellor 1976-1984 of the ANU. Alongside his academic appointments he continued working as an economic adviser: he was chairman of the Australian Wool Industry Conference (1962-64) and had a long association with World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Sir John Crawford died in Canberra on 28 October 1984.

academic; agricultural economist; public servant; university administrator

Created by Claire Griffiths on 15 August 2011; revised on 14 May 2012

Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/crawford-sir-john-grenfell-jack-1391 (accessed on 15 August 2011)
Sir John Crawford 1910-1984, ANU, Canberra 1986