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Vale Nick Booth 1945–2021

It was sad news indeed to learn recently that our old friend and AAIR colleague Nick Booth has passed away. A stalwart of the AAIR executive for many years, Nick truly earned the Life Membership awarded to him in 2009. Those who knew him will remember his dry but endearing wit, his strong work ethic, and his integrity. As colleagues of Nick from the days of his active involvement in AAIR, we would like to offer this account of his varied career in higher education and his valuable contributions to our Association.

Born in the UK in 1945, Nick arrived in Australia in 1962. Whilst studying at the University of Queensland, he served for a time as editor of its student newspaper, Semper Floreat. After his university studies, he worked initially in the printing industry, before becoming the Information & Publications Officer at the University of New England, a position he held from 1973 to 1977. His next position, as Editor of Publications at the NSW Higher Education Board, soon had him drafting much of the Board’s advice to the State Minister.

In 1985, Nick was appointed Assistant Secretary of the NSW Conservatorium of Music. In this role he was responsible for the institute’s entire administration—including the introduction of a computer-based student records system—to meet the new requirement for an electronic student data submission.

In 1987, he was appointed as Assistant Secretary (Student Administration) at Kuring-gai CAE and dealt with the challenges of overseeing its introduction of HECS. After Kuring-gai merged with the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) in 1990, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor sought Nick’s assistance in developing a faculty funding formula based on the student enrolment data sent to Canberra. From this, Nick’s position at UTS developed to play a substantial part in enrolment planning and funding until his retirement in 2002.

Nick’s involvement with AAIR began in 1992 when he attended the third AAIR Forum in Auckland. He followed this by presenting his first paper at the 1993 Forum in Sydney. In 1998, he nominated for a position on the AAIR Executive Committee as an Ordinary Committee Member, only to find himself being invited to nominate for the position of Treasurer instead! For the following eight years, Nick served as AAIR’s dedicated and capable Treasurer, during which time AAIR developed greatly.

A few months before the 2000 Forum in Sydney, the unexpected departure of the Forum chair prompted Nick, as the only AAIR Committee member in Sydney, to take charge of organising and chairing the Forum, a task he undertook most successfully.

In 2001, Nick took on the role of AAIR’s Webmaster. He developed a new website and arranged for all editions of the Journal of Institutional Research in Australasia, as well as all available Forum Proceedings to be scanned, changed to a standard format, and placed on the website.

Although Nick retired from UTS in 2002, his involvement with AAIR continued for several more years. He served as Treasurer until 2006, and as Webmaster until 2008. In recognition of his many contributions, in 2009 Nick was made a Life Member of our Association.

We all remember Nick fondly for his quirky sense of humour and his frequent quotes from old radio shows like ‘The Goons’ and ‘Beyond Our Ken’. He was also great to party with at our many conferences.

Nick spent his final years living in a retirement village in Sydney, and passed away on 22 November 2022. He will be greatly missed by the many members of AAIR who worked with him over the years, and who remember well his dedicated service to our Association.

Dennis Ham, Roni McDowell, Wendy Marchment, Raj Sharma, Bruce Zimmer

(Life Members and former Executive Committee members)

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