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1. OBITUARY> Wm. Theodore de Bary (1919-2017)

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OBITUARY> Wm. Theodore de Bary (1919-2017)

by Charles Muller

Forwarded from the Korean Studies list serve

William Theodore de Bary, 1919-2017

From: Brett de Bary (bmd2@cornell.edu [1])

Dear Colleagues, It is with deep sadness that I announce that my father, Wm.

Theodore de Bary, passed away peacefully at his home, Hōtokudō, in Tappan,

New York, on July 14, 2017. He taught many of you, who are now such

distinguished Asianists, as undergraduates or graduate students at Columbia.

He remembered you and took great pride in your achievements until the end of

his long life. I attach a preliminary obituary. The funeral was held on

Tuesday, July 18, 2017, and there will be a formal memorial service at

Columbia University in the fall. Best, Brett de Bary

William Theodore de Bary (1919-2017)

Wm. Theodore de Bary, acclaimed scholar of East Asian thought and a leader in

the development of Asian Studies in the United States, died peacefully in his

home, Hotokudo, in Tappan, New York, on July 14, 2017. John Mitchell Mason

Professor Emeritus and Provost Emeritus of Columbia University at the time of

his death, de Bary continued to teach after his formal retirement in 1989.

Although weakened by a heart condition, he completed grading the papers for

his last course in May, 2017.

de Bary, one of five children born to Mildred and Wilhelm de Bary in Bronx,

New York, in 1919, grew up in Leonia, New Jersey. Entering Columbia College

as a scholarship student, he began the study of Chinese as a sophomore in

1938. In 1942, while a Master’s candidate at Harvard, he was recruited by

the United States Navy for intensive training in Japanese and served as an

intelligence officer during the Pacific War. He achieved the rank of

Lieutenant Commander and worked briefly for the Office of Naval Intelligence

in 1946. His experiences in Okinawa, Japan, and China during the war

persuaded him of the importance of continuing to learn from East Asian

cultures. He always credited his wife, Fanny Brett de Bary, for inspiring him

to return to do a Ph. D. at Columbia in 1947. Together with his friend Donald

Keene, he studied under Ryusaku Tsunoda, who had recently been released from

an interment camp for Japanese-Americans and who became a revered mentor. In

1949, he was a Fulbright fellow at Beijing University when Communist troops

arrived in the city.

While still a graduate student in 1948, de Bary was made chair of a committee

charged with extending the undergraduate core curriculum in Western

civilizations to include Asian civilizations. He recruited gifted colleagues

to join him in assembling a series of source books containing translations of

major classical and modern texts of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian traditions.

These have been updated and revised on several occasions and are currently

used as textbooks by numerous universities throughout the world. More

recently, Professor de Bary served as editor for an addition to the series

covering Korean civilization and encouraged the development of a companion

work on Vietnamese civilization by colleagues at Columbia. He went on to

author and edited over twenty books.

His last book, "The Great Civilized Conversation: Education for a World

Community", was published in 2013. In it, he established concrete links among

Islamic, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Western classics, emphasizing shared

understandings of humanity and shared concepts of civility. Reflecting on

history's great scholar-teachers and what their methods can teach us today,

he reflected on the power of "The Analects of Confucius", "The Tale of

Genji", and "The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon" as he experienced them in the

classroom.

From 1970 to 1978, de Bary served as Provost of Columbia University, where he

worked to balance the University’s new endeavors with the values that had

inspired him when he first attended the University as an undergraduate.

During this time, he raised the endowment for and established Columbia’s

Heyman Center for the Humanities. Throughout his career, de Bary believed

strongly that undergraduate education was a central mission of the

university, and he saw this mission as a responsibility to be shared by all

segments of the University. He also worked assiduously to promote studies of

the humanities as a necessary adjunct to scientific research and professional

education. He believed firmly that the classics were best read and discussed

between students and faculty in small groups. Teaching pro bono through May,

2017, he learned shortly before his death that his Fall course, “Nobility

and Civility,” was oversubscribed.

For his scholarship and dedication to human understanding on a global level,

he had received the highest awards from the United States, Japan, and Taiwan

in addition to many awards and honors at Columbia University. He was awarded

the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama for fostering a

global conversation based on the common values and experiences shared by all

cultures, helping to bridge differences and build trust. He was also a member

of Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun and, in 2016, was honored to be awarded

the distinguished Tang Prize from the Tang Foundation in Taiwan for his work

in Sinology.

Professor de Bary’s wife, Mary Fanny Brett de Bary, of Northport, New York,

and his daughter, Mary Catherine de Bary Sleight, pre-deceased him. He is

survived by three of his children, Brett de Bary Nee, a professor of Japanese

Literature at Cornell University, Paul de Bary, an attorney and financial

advisor in New York, and Mary Beatrice De Bary Heinrichs, a teacher at the

Academy Hill School, his son-in-law, Victor Nee, a Professor of Sociology at

Cornell University, his daughter-in-law, Stefana de Bary, and her son

Alexandru Marinescu, and a son-in-law, William Sleight, of San Rafael,

California. He is also survived by eight grandchildren and their spouses,

William Nee, of Oakland, California, and David Nee, Ned and Katrina Chapman

de Bary of Boston Massachusetts, and John de Bary and Michael Rameley, of New

York City, Cynthia Sleight, of Austin Texas, Johanna and Scott Moringiello,

Annalies Heinrichs and Damjan DeNoble and Lydia Heinrichs and three great

grandchildren, Theodore and Marco Moringiello and Adelaide DeNoble. In his

last years, he was supported by a group of extraordinary caregivers and by

his fellow parishioners at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church in Tappan, New

York.

A funeral mass was held at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish in Tappan,

New York, at eleven a.m. on Tuesday, July 18th. In lieu of flowers, donations

may be made to the parish or to the Wm. Theodore de* *Bary and Ainslie T.

Embree Fund for Education and Outreach of the Association