Elizabeth Murdoch

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC, DBE (born 1909), philanthropist, is the widow of Australian newspaper publisher Sir Keith Murdoch and the mother of international media proprietor Rupert Murdoch, and his sister Janet Calvert-Jones. wiki

Murdoch is a life-governor of the Royal Women's Hospital. She is Patron of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and of the Australian American Association (Victoria), founded by her husband. She was a founding member of the Deafness Foundation of Victoria.


 * Patron, Australian Family Association

According to The Australian newspaper:


 * "Rather than rest on the achievements of her husband and later her children, she chose philanthropy as her driving mission in life, giving her name, time and money to more than 100 charities ranging from medical research to social welfare, children, the arts, flora and fauna, heritage and academia...


 * "During the ’60s her philanthropic interests expanded to include the arts, and in 1968 she was invited to be the first woman trustee of the new National Gallery of Victoria – a project which had long been championed by her late husband. The invitation was extended by, of all people, Henry Bolte. She quickly got engaged, playing a key role in helping keep the gallery abreast of world trends.


 * "By the early ’70s Dame Elisabeth was expanding her philanthropic horizons in all directions. She helped her daughter Janet establish Taralye, an oral language centre for deaf children, became a driving force in the establishment of the McClelland Gallery, and also helped set up the Victorian Tapestry Workshop.


 * "Her reputation was such that she became the first call for many people seeking support for a wide variety of good causes. At one stage, prime minister Malcolm Fraser’s cabinet even discussed her name as a possible candidate for governor-general.


 * "In the ’80s, at an age when most philanthropists would slow down, she and her family helped establish the Murdoch Institute for Research into Birth Defects (now the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute). In 2003 such ventures saw her awarded the Great Australian Philanthropy Award by Research Australia. In 2005 she was named Victorian of the Year."

"Today Dame Elisabeth supports 110 charities annually. Her philanthropic activities are too numerous to be listed here, but she has concentrated her efforts most particularly on: the Tapestry Workshop; the McClelland Art Gallery; the Advisory Council for Children with Impaired Hearing; Noah's Ark Toy Library; the RSPCA; the Royal Botanic Gardens; the Maud Gibson Gardens Trust; the Chair of Landscape Architecture (Melbourne Uni); the Murdoch Research Institute; and Taralye, an oral language centre for deaf children."

Biography

 * John Monks, Elisabeth Murdoch: Two Lives (Macmillan Australia, 1994).