Remembering Geoffrey Read

A blog by Catherine Leonard, INTO Secretary-General

We mourn the loss of our dear friend and colleague Geoffrey Read, a passionate and committed supporter of INTO since its beginning. And our thoughts are with his friends and family at this time – as well as many colleagues and organisations across the INTO movement who knew him well and benefited from his wise advice and generosity.

Geoff had been involved with SK Misra and INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) before the Delhi Conference in 2007 which saw the launch of INTO. He was one of the invited speakers at that pivotal event and it was only natural that INTO would go on to invite him to become a voluntary director. This was a role he shared with Oliver Maurice initially and then Bill Turner, amongst others.

I also joined the INTO team in early 2008 to coordinate the network two days a week. I vividly remember Oliver and Geoffrey coming to our place in France early that year for the first Secretariat face-to-face meeting. We spent one long afternoon up the mountain (and very nearly missed the last lift back down, which could have been tricky otherwise with no skis and barely any working knees between us!).

INTO Chair, Simon Molesworth, had positioned Oliver as INTO’s Honorary Director of Membership Development and Services and Geoffrey, Honorary Director of Finance and Infrastructure (later becoming Director of Special Projects). We expected his experience at the World Bank would help us with fundraising and programme design. But in fact, it was his deep knowledge of urban development, planning and engineering which was so valuable to our member organisations – as well as his enthusiasm for all things green and just a love of the world and its people.

We met monthly with the steering committee for that first year and remarkably, we achieved a lot. We set up a functioning Secretariat, launched our first website and e-bulletin, drafted an ambitious business plan and began forming regional groups. We supported early conversations about new National Trusts in Canada, South Africa and Taiwan, facilitated international exchanges of best practice and built partnerships with global heritage organisations including UNESCO, IUCN and ICOMOS. Not bad for year one!

Geoff was involved in all of this, but his main contribution was leading the development of our first business plan. It was bold and forward-looking, and although it took time for INTO to become financially sustainable, having that initial framework was invaluable.

In 2012 I remember we held our board face-to-face meeting in Washington DC and Geoff and his family hosted us at their home in Van Ness Street with hot cider and Halloween treats. He also drove us up to visit Fallingwater, an unforgettable experience.

Geoffrey was good at the little things as well as the big ones. He designed ‘please recycle your delegate pack’ stickers for us to use at the UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs) as well as hand woven INTO badges. He attended a number of these on our behalf (Durban and Marrakech particularly come to my mind) and always supported INTO’s involvement in international policy conversations. He was also a keen advocate of INTO’s Small Grants Programme, which was launched in 2013 and which later evolved into TAP INTO. He was unabashed at lobbying the board for more budget and even helped us recruit a brilliant volunteer, Susan van Schalkwyk, to run the programme.

I never made it to the Barn (Geoff and Ann’s French bolthole) but I did go to their home in London once or twice. And in 2014, Ben and I spent a beautiful day with Geoff and INTO friend Donald Hankey at the fabulous Dinton Mill near Salisbury where they were staying.  I wrote in my blog at the time, “It was like Wind in the Willows and learning to fish was a great backdrop to some good conversations about INTO.  We didn’t catch a sausage.  (Although that would have been rather nasty!)”

Geoff brought Ari (Catrini Kubontubuh) from the Indonesian Heritage Trust (BPPI) to my home in April 2016. We spent some time sightseeing in Winchester and then joined the INTO board call from my kitchen table. True to form, Geoff arrived with a lovely gift – ten beautiful geranium plants!

Living in London, Geoff was often roped into INTO functions and meetings, like Fiona’s World Heritage Day lectures in Cambridge or gatherings at the National Trust offices in London or Swindon. He also combined World Bank travel with visiting far-flung INTO members or attending events on our behalf – particularly in China, India and Indonesia – as well as our own conferences and board meetings, sometimes with Ann. They were with us for the first board meeting under Fiona’s leadership in Milan in 2016, Geoff helping us build relationships and move INTO forward, as ever.

I wrote in my blog: “The INTO Executive Committee/Board/Secretariat brings together the very finest of the global National Trust movement.  Leaders past and present of our individual organisations; a vast knowledge of the heritage and conservation worlds; and huge amounts of skill and experience which they share big-heartedly in order to make INTO greater than the sum of its parts.  I am continually humbled by their wisdom and generosity.”

Writing this tribute – and supporting Oliver Maurice with his memoires – has sent me down memory lane, with the help of some old files. I noted that in May 2017, we took on a part-time administrator, which was a welcome relief for my indefatigable honorary directors. While digging through the archives, I came across Geoff’s wonderfully detailed (and slightly shouty!) guidance for delegates attending INTO Cambridge in 2015. It was full of BOLD CAPS and practical advice, like “We suggest don’t take a BLACK CAB as VERY costly.” Classic Geoff.

With Alex Lamont Bishop joining the team in 2019, the volunteer Secretariat began to take more of a back seat. Geoff remained close to us, coming to various recent events and hoping to attend our 2025 board meeting in London, though feeling poorly on the day he sent his regrets.

I will miss Geoff’s presence, his thoughtfulness and cheerful, self-deprecating personality. I’ll miss conversations about our respective French properties, his enthusiasm and positivity for the world. And I’ll miss the way Geoff always made time – a thoughtful email, a spontaneous visit or a quiet moment of connection. Thank you, dear friend for everything.