Wm. Theodore de Bary, Renowned Columbia Sinologist, Dies at 97
When he returned to New York, Professor Carman, by then dean of Columbia College, asked him to teach Asian courses
that would parallel the Western Civilization and Humanities course.
In 1968, as chairman of the university senate executive committee — which included faculty, student, administrative and alumni representatives — he helped lead Columbia through weeks of student protests over the university’s ties to military research during the Vietnam War and the construction, on park land, of a university gymnasium
that offered only limited backdoor access to Harlem residents.
As a young professor he became head of Asian studies,
and under his stewardship the department became a national leader in the teaching of Chinese language and culture.
When he entered Columbia College on a full scholarship, a neighbor, Frieda Urey, the wife of the Nobel Prize-winning
Columbia chemist Harold Urey, was kind enough to make him a matching set of curtains and bedcovers to take along.
Professor de Bary was an internationally esteemed Sinologist with a shelf of at least 30 books to his credit, either written or edited by him,
and a bevy of academic awards and honors, including the National Humanities Medal, presented by President Barack Obama.