FROM THE ARCHIVES PROFESSOR STEPHEN SALSBURY
St Andrew’s generous community of
Bachelor of Arts in 1953 from Occidental
would regularly dine in College with
benefactors have always come to the
College in the USA, one of the West Coast’s
Senior Common Room members at
College’s aid when in difficulty. One such
leading Liberal Arts institutions. Salsbury’s
High Table when he would contribute
time of need was in the late 1990s when
excellent undergraduate work took him to Harvard to study for a Master of Arts
to the conversation and debate with
the College’s scholarship funds had fallen to a low ebb. Indeed, some particularly
where he later gained his doctorate in
able students had been attracted to other
1961. After Harvard, Salsbury held a
Colleges by more generous scholarships
number of important academic posts
and, as St Andrew’s entered a period of
before his appointment as Professor of
transition to co-residence, the Council began to take difficult decisions in order to improve access to College. By 1999, the scholarships at St Andrew’s amounted to
Philanthropy Report 2019
barely one tenth of what was available at
Economic History at Sydney University in 1979. At Sydney, he worked to intergrade political and economic analysis into a
death in 1999 aged only 66, Professor Salsbury’s gift has established four annual scholarships in traditional economics, agriculture, veterinary science, and law
including the emphatically titled No Way to Run a Railroad.
Salsbury was subsequently made Dean distinguished himself as a conspicuous advocate for the GST. At St Andrew’s College, Professor Salsbury held the Hunter Baillie Fellowship in English Language and Literature – an appointment that showed the disciplinary latitude of these fellowships.
which have supported many students in
Like Professor Spann, Professor Salsbury
their studies over the past 21 years.
had also made a long contribution to the College, ever since he visited St
14
Room where many of them were written
Dean of Studies and Acting Archivist
of Economics at Sydney University and
to the College. Following his untimely
the bookshelves of the Senior Common
Mr Alex Wright (Fr 2014)
Having been privy to the many discussions
Salsbury, left a substantial bequest
Several of Salsbury’s volumes enhance
work was an important part of his
St Paul’s College.
pool, College Fellow, Professor Stephen
and disarming candour and frankness.’
unified approach. This interdisciplinary contribution to scholarship. Professor
about the shallowness of the scholarship
knowledge, wisdom, insight, humour
Stephen Salsbury was one of Sydney
Andrew’s as an undergraduate from his
University’s more prominent professors.
native California. The Council Chairman,
Born in 1931, he graduated with a
the Revd. D. F. Murray, recalled, ‘He
Image: Francis Giacco’s portrait of Professor Stephen Salsbury, clad in his Harvard robes, hangs in the College Dining Hall in gratitude for his long service and generosity.
