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Ronald Takaki, Asian American historian and surfer from Hawaii, passes away at 70

 

(UPDATE: Here’s the full obituary that the University of California at Berkeley released on Thursday, May 28. My original post is below.)

Ronald Takaki, a historian who taught ethnic studies and influenced thousands of students over his career, died Tuesday at the age of 70, a research assistant at the University of California at Berkeley confirmed Wednesday.

In December 2003, he retired from teaching at the school’s Ethnic Studies Department, research assistant Mirian Meux said in a phone interview.

Takaki was born on April 12, 1939, Meux said. He passed away at his house.

He is survived by his wife, Carol, and children, Dana, Troy and Todd, San Francisco-based AsianWeek reported. Takaki also had grandchildren.

As a historian, he wrote numerous books, including the highly-regarded Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans.

Takaki was from Hawaii and often talked about surfing and his nickname, “Ten Toes Takaki.”

But he also stressed the importance of critical thinking skills, or epistemology as he defined it. “Espistemology asks the question: ‘How do you know, you know, what you know?’” he said in the 2006 commencement speech at Whitman College in Washington state.

“In other words, the ‘how’ of knowing may be more important than the ‘what.’ How you know something may determine what you know about it.”

He also brought humor and important lessons to his lectures with students. In the same speech, he talked about one of his books, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America.

“In my book, the epic story of America is told not only from the top-down, the perspectives of the rich and powerful, but, more importantly, from the bottom-up, through the lives, experiences, and stories of everday people,” he said.

For him, that meant people from different parts of the world.

“Their varied voices, orchestrated side-by-side together, tell the complicated but hopeful story of America as a nation peopled by the world,” he said.

Then, he told the students that he wanted to give each graduate a copy of the book. “But my suitcase was not big enough,” he said.

His death follows last week’s passing of Chinese American historian Him Mark Lai.

The full text of his Whitman speech is online. His official biography from Berkeley is here.

If you studied with him, worked with him or considered him a mentor and friend, please share your stories in the comments section.

As with Lai, I would like to hear more stories about Takaki directly from people who knew him.

Thanks.

UPDATE: Beleza Chan of AsianWeek has a fuller story on Takaki. Check AsianWeek often because the scholars who knew him the best are sharing their thoughts about him.