Obituaries Australia

Hector Macdonald Boot (1939-2025), economic historian and greatly respected teacher dedicated to academic life, died on April 18, 2025 at the age of 85. He is survived by his wife Val, their two sons and daughter.

Known to everyone as Mac Boot, he was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, 25 miles (40 kilometres) inland from the North Sea, on May 14, 1939. His ambition upon leaving school was to become a school teacher. With the intention of pursuing that ambition he enrolled for a teaching certificate, completing the qualification in 1963. He then taught for three years while enrolled as an external student in the University of London, where he studied for a B.Sc. (Econ) degree specialising in economic and social history. He graduated with an Honours 2A result in 1965. Awarded a Reckitt’s Research Scholarship to the University of Hull in 1966, Mac embarked on a Master’s thesis, choosing as his topic The Capital Market and the Crisis of 1847. The thesis was subsequently upgraded to a PhD, which was awarded in 1979. It was published in 1984 with the title The Commercial Crisis of 1847 by the University of Hull in its series of Occasional Papers in Economic and Social History. While undertaking research for the thesis he worked as a part-time tutor.

In June 1968, Mac applied successfully for a lectureship in Economic History at the University of New England. After 18 months working under RS Neale at UNE, he applied for a lectureship in the Department of Economic History at ANU, in what was then the School of General Studies, later The Faculties, and he was again successful, commencing at ANU in 1970. A reference from the University of Hull stated that Mac ‘impressed us as a young man of outstanding drive and determination with a most lively intellectual approach to his work … In every way Mr Boot impressed us here as a very thorough young man, hardworking and deeply interested in his work. He is a good teacher, patient and yet lively.” The report remarked that it was “comparatively rare for a young man to do so well in an external degree, and to continue to develop intellectually as Mr Boot has done”, adding that “there is no doubt in our minds that he was potentially an excellent university teacher and colleague.”

 In 1991 Mac was promoted to Senior Lecturer at ANU. The appointments committee wrote in its report that Mac’s referees “commend him as an outstanding and gifted teacher and note the wide recognition given to his research and academic standing. His recent work on wages and human capital is seen as a key contribution to the understanding of the debate on pay structure and income distribution in industrialising economies.” Above all, it noted that “Dr Boot has made a substantial administrative contribution within the University and in the wider community and has initiated links with the public sector through consultancies and courses at the centre for continuing education.”

Mac taught several courses in economic history at ANU, including first-year courses in British and Australian economic history, and third-year and fourth-year honours courses in Business and Economy in the Asia-Pacific Region; Asian Giants: India, China and Japan: Alternative Paths to Prosperity; and Development of Capital Markets. He was highly regarded by his students for his strong commitment to teaching, his thorough preparation of lectures and tutorials, and for the time he devoted to assisting students. His popularity as a teacher was demonstrated in the impressive enrolment numbers in the courses he took, and in student surveys. On several occasions he was appointed Head or Acting Head of the Department of Economic History. As to his contributions to the discipline of economic history, Mac was a member of the Editorial Committees of the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Australia and the Australian Economic History Review, the management committees of the Australian History of Economic Thought Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand. He also served as a referee for The Economic History Review, the Australian Economic History Review and Policy. 

He spent two very rewarding study leaves, one at the University of Edinburgh, the other at Cambridge. At the latter, he was associated with the History of Population and Social Structure group in the Department of Geography. There he pursued research on clerical salaries and career earnings in the British East India Company’s home office between 1760 and 1860. Earlier, in Edinburgh, he gained access to the records of the Bank of Scotland, using them to compile statistical series of pay scales and other employment data from the late 18th century to the middle of the 19th century. This research formed the basis of several seminar and conference papers, and some highly regarded publications.

 As well as a strong commitment to teaching and research, Mac was involved in a remarkable range of university and community activities. For the Centre for Continuing Education, he organised several conferences and study courses in economics for middle-level public servants, for the Trade Union Training Authority and for the small business community in Canberra. For many years he taught an evening course in economics for the CCE. He was a member of the executive committee of the Staff Amenities Fund, the Consultative Committee for the Australian Universities Superannuation Scheme, the University Co-operative Credit Union, and was Treasurer and member of the Executive Committee of the ANU Staff Association. For many years he was a member of the Conferring of Degrees Ceremony Committee and was the Esquire Bedell at conferring of degrees ceremonies.

 Another very important aspect of Mac’s career at ANU was his involvement in the life and administration of the university’s residential halls. He was a member of the Governing Body of Garran Hall, serving on occasions as Deputy Warden, and later he was a Non-Residential Fellow and Tutor at Bruce Hall. But above all, he was Chairman of the Graduate House Management Committee for 10 years from 1993 to 2003, a major task being the management of the transfer of Graduate House from its original site in the city to its present site on the campus next to University House. The change in location brought Graduate House under the administration of University House. On Mac’s retirement from Graduate House, Professor John Richards, the Master of University House, wrote that “By any measure his commitment has been outstanding and his attention to detail during the location and extension has meant that we now have a well-functioning on-campus Graduate house and community, with a waiting list the envy of all Halls and Colleges.” As a tribute to Mac’s contributions to Graduate House an internal walkway along a wrought iron architectural feature was named “Mac Boot Way”.

Mac’s activities were by no means confined to the ANU. At different times he was Secretary of the ACT Council for Civil Liberties, the Foundation President of the Canberra Labor Club and between 1975 and 1978 he was the Secretary of the ACT Branch of the ALP.

 Mac retired as Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Commerce, in July 2002. For some years after his formal retirement, he continued to undertake research and teaching as an Adjunct Associate Professor/Senior Fellow in them Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute in the College of Arts and Social Sciences.