Sam Smorgon - A Memoir
“I have for some time had the wish to tell something of my life from childhood on, and record it for my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”
So we spent many pleasurable and fascinating (for me anyway) hours and days in his living room talking about his long, illustrious and extremely full life, both personally and in business. The result was a 225-page book covering his birth in Ukraine, his family's escape and travel to Australia in the 1920s, settling in Melbourne and establishing a business that was to last for seven decades and encompass glass, paper, steel, meat and shipping amongst many other ventures. In tandem with the business ventures were the stories of family, philanthropy, what it meant to be Jewish, a Carlton Football Club supporter and the Chancellor of RMIT...
However this is a book for family only, so I can't say more than this. His wife told me one of his grandchildren exclaimed "it's just like Granddad is talking to me," which is everything I could hope for from a project like this. As for Mr Smorgon himself, this is a personal legacy he can now give his family, even those who can't yet read.
