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H-ASIA
August 8, 2007
Norton S. Ginsburg (1921-2007)
*****************
From: Vincent K Pollard <pollard@hawaii.edu>
Dear Colleagues,
On 30 July 2007, Norton Sidney Ginsburg passed away in Chicago where
he studied and taught for several decades.
With longstanding interests in East and Southeast Asia, Ginsburg was a
broad-gauge scholar and teacher. His interests ranged from regional
geography, economic geography and political geography to urban geography,
the law of the sea and other policy-relevant domains of inquiry and
research.
Admitted to The University of Chicago on scholarship at age sixteen,
Norton Ginsburg earned his AB (1941). During World War II, he worked
as a geographer in the Army Map Service but mostly in the U.S. Naval
Reserve.
Returning to The University of Chicago, he quickly completed his AM (1947)
and PhD(1949).
From 1951 until 1986 and while not on visiting apppointments
elsewhere, Ginsburg taught in the Department of Geography -- now the
Committee on Geographical Studies.
Among a long list of Ginsburg's extraordinary contributions, four
earlier works of his that will still interest Asian studies scholars
are:
Norton S. Ginsburg, John E. Brush et al. The Pattern of Asia. Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1958.
Norton S. Ginsburg. The Atlas of Economic Development. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1961; reprinted three times.
Hermann, Albert. An Historical Atlas of China. New edition. General
editor, Norton Ginsburg. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1966.
Norton S. Ginsburg, " On the Chinese Perception of a World Order," In Tang
Tsou and Ping-ti Ho (editors), China in Crisis, Volume 2: China's Policies
in Asia and America's Alternatives. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1968. Chapter 3.
In 1986, he began a term as Director of the Environmental and Policy
Institute at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawa'i. And while in
Honolulu, Ginsburg taught a few courses at the University of Hawai'i -
Manoa.
Acccording to the February 1996 issue of the online University of
Chicago Magazine, Ginsburg "was designated a 'distinguished Asianist' by
the Asian geography group of the Association of American Geographers. A
past president of the Association, Ginsburg was also academic-program dean
at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara,
CA, in the early 1970s."
The URL to the web page with that information is
http://magazine.uchicago.edu/9602/9602BOBClassnews4.html#40s On that page
click on the link for "1940s."
Reflecting in the mid-1980s on his recent experiences as a consultant
to the Chinese edition of Encyclopedia Britannica, he commented to me that
his Chinese counterparts perceived the translation as "technology
exchange."
Like other great educators, Norton Ginsburg was enthusastic, skillfully
challenging, stimulating and supportive. Ginsburg was a reader of my
master's thesis for two different degree-granting committees at The
University of Chicago. In retrospect, I must credit him for encouraging me
to develop an understanding of the "ideology of Southeast Asian
regionalism" -- an approach that, in many ways, was clearly opposed
to his orientation to organizations like ASA and ASEAN. A less secure and
less generous person would have put obstacles in my path.
Those of us who benefitted from Norton Ginsburg's teaching and advice
will miss him. He would have been eighty-six years old on 24 August 2007.
The link to an announcement from The University of Chicago is
http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/07/070801.ginsburg.shtml
A eulogy "In Memorian: Norton Ginsburg, 1921-2007" by Rabbi Elliot B.
Gertel of Congregation Rodfei Zedek (Chicago, 7 August 2007) is at
http://blaingritch.blogspot.com/
Norton Ginsburg's obituary in The Chicago Tribune on 3 August 2007
was republlshed online on 7 August 2007. To access it, visit
http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/1/7/96425471.html
Vincent K Pollard
University of Hawai'i -Manoa
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