Passing away of James Palais

A following message just arrived via Korean Studies List: I just received the sad news from the University of Washington that James Palais passed away today. It's a great loss to our field. I'm sure in a day or two somehow will send out an email obituary with details of his scholarly accomplishments.In the meantime, let me just say that it is not only his scholarship that will be missed. Those of us who were lucky enough to get to know Jim and work with him knew what a wonderful sense of humor he had. He also was a dedicated teacher of graduate students, determined to push his students to do the best they were capable of but doing so with a smile rather than a verbal whip. All of us who worked under him can say we have not only lost a mentor, we have also lost a friend. Sincerely, Don Baker Associate Professor, Department of Asian Studies Director, Centre for Korean Research University of British Columbia [...] I have nothing else to add or to commemorate a great scholar but only say that if someone's going to read just one book on Chosôn dynasty Korea and is not afraid of more than 1000 pages and immense amount of info and analysis of premodern Korea, it'd be Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty by Palais. Update, Aug 11, 2006 Owen has written a note on professor Palais' death at Frog in a Well, compiling also a bibliography of his most important works and articles. Update 2. • obituary by Gari Ledyard in the Korean Studies list • ‘행동하는 지식인’ 역사학자 제임스 팔레 별세 (경향신문) • 한국학 대부 제인스 팔레 타계 (한겨레) • 美한국학의 대부 제임스 팔레 별세 (조선일보) • 美 한국학 대부 제임스 팔레 별세 (연합) "I submitted professor Palais a 100-page manuscript, and after a few months I got it back from him with a 90-page commentary attached", says professor Park Cheong-sin. • Top scholar brought prestige to UW Korea studies, by Carol N. Vu, Northwest Asian Weekly • Founder of Korean Studies in US James Palais Dies • Obituary: James Palais, 72, leading Korea scholar (Seattle Times) • James Palais (Wikipedia) Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: Koreanstudies ∙ academic ∙ people ∙ Koreanhistory ∙ books