Graeme Hugo--Famous Australian demographer--Has Passed Away

Demographers deal with mortality all the time, but largely at the more abstract level. When one of your own dies it is always more difficult. This week saw the untimely death of Dr. Graeme Hugo of the University of Adelaide in Australia. Peter McDonald has posted a nice piece about his life on the website of the Australian Demographic & Social Research Institute. He was a prolific scholar of immigration, internal migration, and urbanization (including co-editing a volume on new forms of urbanization in which I was fortunate to have a chapter), as well as being a true public servant in the interests of demography:

In his home country, Australia, he was much in demand from governments at all levels for advice on migration and population policy. He served on many national committees and, in 2011, led a major enquiry by the Australian Government on population policy. In 2012, he was awarded the great honour of being appointed as an Officer in the Order of Australia for his services to the field of demography. At the time of his death, he had served for eight years on the Australian Statistical Advisory Council. The Australian Deputy Statistician, Peter Harper, described Graeme as one of life’s gentlemen, a brilliant mind and very generous with his time.

We can all hope to have lived this well.