Robert J. Smith, anthropologist (1927-2016) (xpost H-Japan)

Ryan Dunch Discussion
 
(Crossposted from H-Japan)
Discussion published by Walter Edwards on Saturday, October 22, 2016

I have just belately received the sad news of the loss of Bob Smith, and would like to pass the word along briefly in case others have missed it as well.

Robert J. Smith (1927-2016), one of the leading anthropologists in the postwar study of Japan, passed away "fairly peacefully" in Ithaca NY on 11 October 2016. Bob was 89, and is survived by his wife Kazuko.

Brief notices have been posted on the websites of Cornell University (http://anthropology.cornell.edu/memoriam-robert-j-smith) and the Ithaca Journal (http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/theithacajournal/obituary.aspx?pid=181923692), which between them provide a sketchy account of his life and remarkable career in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University, where he held the Goldwin Smith Chair in Anthropology and Asian Studies from 1974 until his retirement in 1997.

His major works include the monographs Ancetstor Worship in Contemporary Japan (Stanford UP, 1974), Kurusu: The Price of Progress in a Japanese Village, 1951-1975 (Stanford UP, 1978), Japanese Society: Tradition, Self, and the Social Order (Cambridge UP, 1983), and (with Ella Lury Wiswell) The Women of Suye Mura (University of Chicago Press, 1983). He also served as President of the Association for Asian Studies in 1988, and in 1993 was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government for his outstanding contributions to the study of Japan.

He will be remembered by many not only for his own scholarly accomplishments but also his superb guidance and generosity as a teacher.

Walter Edwards