The Wales-born man arrived in Hong Kong in 1962 as a Commonwealth scholar to undertake research in land economics after studying economics at the Universities of Manchester and Oxford. Two years later, he was appointed a lecturer in economics at the University of Hong Kong.

He served as deputy editor of the now-defunct Far Eastern Economic Review from 1966 to 1976, with special responsibility for the coverage of China and Hong Kong. The magazine, which was headquartered in Hong Kong, closed down in 2004.

In 1989, Goodstadt was appointed by then-governor David Wilson as the head of the newly established government think tank, the Central Policy Unit. During his eight-year stint as the government’s top adviser, he devised strategies on political, economic and social issues for Wilson and his successor, Patten.

Patten told the South China Morning Post he was very sad to hear about Goodstadt’s death. “Leo was an outstanding economist with a deep and imaginative social conscience, in part inspired by his Catholic faith,” the last governor said.

“He contributed with great wisdom to the development of social policy which sought to spread Hong Kong’s prosperity to larger numbers of people. He felt particularly strongly about housing, health and education at all levels,” Patten said.

“There are two things that I remember most clearly about Leo and his wife, Rose. First was their Catholic faith and second was their passionate commitment to Hong Kong, its quality of life and its freedom under the law. He was one of Hong Kong’s greatest friends,” Patten said.

Wilson told the Post: “Leo Goodstadt, with his long experience as an academic and journalist, was an excellent head of the Central Policy Unit when it was set up in 1989 to provide fresh thinking and new ideas for government policy.

“He had a deep and passionate interest in Hong Kong. Those involved in the administration of Hong Kong at that time owe him a great debt of gratitude for the work he did.”

After retiring from the Central Policy Unit in 1997, Goodstadt moved to Dublin, where he became an adjunct professor with Trinity Business School at Trinity College Dublin.

He had published five books on Hong Kong’s political and social development since 2005.

In his last book, A City Mismanaged: Hong Kong’s Struggle for Survival, published in 2018, Goodstadt argued that the “gross mismanagement” of Hong Kong by the city’s four chief executives to date had resulted in the current problems faced by residents – from the housing shortage to a flawed education system and political uncertainty.

Andrew Li Kwok-nang, who served as chief justice from 1997 to 2010, said he worked with Goodstadt as an intern at the Far Eastern Economic Review during two summers when he was studying at Cambridge University in the late 1960s.

“He gave me many opportunities to write on interesting subjects. As a journalist, researcher and author, he maintained the highest professional standards and exercised strong intellectual discipline and rigour,” Li told the Post.

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Li was also a part-time adviser of the Central Policy Unit in the early 1990s.

“He was a kind-hearted and compassionate man. His heart was forever with Hong Kong,” Li said.

Goodstadt was also a power broker who groomed a generation of leaders who had been active in various sectors in Hong Kong since the 1990s.

Joseph Cheng Yu-shek, former secretary general of the Civic Party, and Barry Cheung Chun-yuen, chairman of former chief executive Leung Chun-ying’s election office, served as full-time advisers of the Central Policy Unit under Goodstadt’s leadership.