Steve Gower was Director of the Australian War Memorial between 1996 and 2012. He is a Duntroon graduate and Vietnam veteran who gained an Honours degree in Engineering from the University of Adelaide, followed by a Masters degree by research. He spent 37 years in the Australian Army, attaining the rank of major general before resigning to become the ninth Director of the Australian War Memorial, a position he held for over 16 years. During that time Steve Gower was Chair of the Council of Australian Museum Directors and on the Museum Management Committee of the International Council of Museums. Active in tourism related to the Memorial, he was a chair of the Canberra Convention Bureau and a board member of the Canberra Tourism Corporation.
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'I think you've achieved what you set out to do - and more. The book reads well and certainly fills the void in histories of the AWM. It would be enormously helpful to the present-day staff and council, not to mention a host of bureaucrats and outsiders, because it has a true sense of historical perspectives. It tells how the AWM developed and grew, if in stops and starts. It also explains, as no other book has, how the place works and the delicate art of museum practice. The final chapter, especially the stuff on Anzac Day, is outstanding. The tome thought the book is just right: you tell the story but you don't look away when you see humbug. The criticisms come over as constructive and your praise for others in generous.' - Les Carlyon
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'Above all, what emerges from this book is the obvious pleasure Gower derived from his role, whether he was greeting visiting dignitaries, wrangling politicians, presiding over solemn ceremonial, scrambling up scaffolding to view restoration work or poring over plans for new galleries and buildings, and the privilege he felt in exercising the "temporary stewardship … of this great and uniquely Australian institution". ' - Derek Abbott, Honest History