Douglas Copland

A meticulous biography of an outstanding statesman

'In Australia the name Copland is one to be conjured with.' The Canadian ambassador to China was addressing the diplomatic corps gathered to farewell Professor Douglas Copland, Australia's second Minister to China. It was early 1948, and Copland was leaving China to become founding Vice-Chancellor of the new Australian National University in Canberra. The compliment was a reference to Copland's outstanding career in Australia as an academic, applied economist, administrator and public intellectual. His academic writings were numerous and timely, his newspaper articles were widely syndicated and he was constantly in demand as a public speaker and broadcaster.

Copland's name is perpetuated by a lecture theatre at the University of Melbourne, a building at ANU, a secondary college in the Canberra suburb of Melba and by a series of lectures sponsored by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.

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Marjorie Harper has an MA in economics and economic history from the University of Melbourne. She was employed as a tutor in economics and economic history, awarded a Rockefeller fellowship to visit the London School of Economics, MIT and Harvard and to spend some time at the International Monetary Fund. After her marriage to John Harper and until her three children finished secondary school she was a half-time senior lecturer in economic history and subsequently taught full time. Before retiring she was requested to write a biography of the public life of Sir Douglas Copland on behalf of his family.