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{{short description|Australian industrialist, arts patron and benefactor}}{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

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| image = | caption = df=yes1|2}}Melitopol>Heidelberg, Russian Empire| birth_name =df=yes719132}}| death_place = Melbourne, Victoria, Australia| nationality = Australian| education = | occupation = Businessman| known_for = Co-founder of Smorgon Consolidated Industries Companion of the Order of Australia | children = Sandra Smorgon Bardas Ginny Smorgon Green Vicki Smorgon Vidor Bindy Smorgon Koadlow| spouse = Loti Smorgon| parents = Naum Smorgon (father)| family =| website = Victor Smorgon {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AC}} (2 January 1913 – 3 July 2009) was an Australian industrialist, arts patron and benefactor, who was founder and former head of the Victor Smorgon Group.

Biography

Smorgon was born in 1913 in Heidelberg, a German settlement in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire.Australian Biography: Victor Smorgon, (National Film and Sound Archive), 1998. His father, Naum (Norman) Smorgon, ran a kosher butcher shop until the business was nationalized in 1927, with the Smorgon family emigrating to Australia later that year.NEWS, Carman, Gerry, Myer, Rod, Industrialist fled Stalin and built own empire,www.smh.com.au/national/industrialist-fled-stalin-and-built-own-empire-20090706-daeq.html, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 July 2009, en, Naum Smorgon and his brothers resumed the family’s kosher butchery in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton North, and Victor entered the wholesale meat business.BOOK, 1001 Australians You Should Know, Creswell, Toby, Toby Creswell, Samantha Trenoweth, 2006, Pluto Press Australia, Melbourne, 1-86403-361-4, The success of Victor’s meat importing business saw the entire family become involved in the company, and soon Smorgon Consolidated Industries expanded its business to cover plastics, glass, steel and recycling.Victor Smorgon dead at the age of 96, Yahoo! News, 3 July 2009.By 1995, the collective worth of Smorgon Consolidated Industries’ interests in steel, paper, plastics, packaging and property had been estimated at between A$1.2 billion and $1.5 billion. In February of that year, the Smorgon family decided to divest the company (with the exception of the Smorgon Steel Group, Australia’s second-largest steel producer, which was floated publicly). The proceeds of the SCI sale were distributed among the seven branches of the Smorgon family in Australia, and re-invested or used to purchase new holdings under the umbrella of the Victor Smorgon Group.Elias, David: The Smorgon Empire, The Age, 16 January 1999.

Personal life

In 1937, he married Loti Smorgon in the East Melbourne Synagogue; they had four daughters:The Age: “Loti Smorgon dies after lifetime of philanthropy” by Adrian Lowe August 21, 2013 Sandra Smorgon Bardas, Ginny Smorgon Green, Vicki Smorgon Vidor and Bindy Smorgon Koadlow.The Fouress Foundation: “Giving Green Stories - Elli and Belinda Bardas, Family Foundation Working Group Members” retrieved May 28, 2015 Smorgon died in Melbourne, Australia, on 3 July 2009 aged 96.NEWS, Mike, Hedge, Industrialist Victor Smorgon dies at 96,news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-business/industrialist-victor-smorgon-dies-at-96-20090703-d79i.html, The Age, 3 July 2009, 1 December 2009,

Honours

Victor Smorgon was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1990 for service to art as a benefactor.WEB,honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/871563, SMORGON, Victor: Officer of the Order of Australia, It’s an Honour, June 1990, Australian Government, Smorgon was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2007 for service to the community as a benefactor and supporter of a wide range of organisations, particularly in the areas of art, education and medicine.WEB,honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1134645, SMORGON, Victor: Companion of the Order of Australia, It’s an Honour, June 2007, Australian Government,

References

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