People Australia

Maurice Stuart (Maurie) Crow (1915-1988) clerk, trade union official and Communist

Birth: 17 January 1915 at Kew, Melbourne, Victoria, son of native-born parents John William Stuart Crow (1883-1949), company director, and Stella Rosa, née Obbinson (1888-1921). Marriage: 22 December 1937 at the office of the Government Statist, Melbourne, to Ruth Hope Miller (1916-1999), a manageress, born at Ballarat. They had two daughters. Death: 4 April 1988 at North Melbourne; usual residence O’Shanassy Street, North Melbourne. 

• Long term member of Communist Party of Australia (53 years).
• Organiser, Federated Clerks’ Union 1946-49 and agitator for unity among white collar trade unions.
• With his wife Ruth he became increasingly interested from the 1960s in town planning, urban design, and conservation movements; their town planning work receiving three major awards. In the 1970s he well known for writing about conservation of urban energy.
• He was a co-author of Seeds for change – creatively confronting the energy crisis (North Melbourne, 1978).
• Both Maurie and Ruth were ‘committed generalists’ who ‘over the years built connections between the union movement, energy and transport issues, the environment, social justice, child care and the role of women, peace and physical planning’ (Gib Wettenhall).
• Cause of death: polyarteritis nodosa (3 months) and diabetes mellitus (14 years). 

Sources
Tribune (Sydney), 4 May 1988, 17 October 1990; The Clerk, n.d. (c. 1991).