Edward Willett Wagner

Edward Willett Wagner (August 7, 1924 – December 7, 2001) was an American academic and a professor of Korean studies at Harvard University; he was an expert on Korean aristocracy during the Choson dynasty period.

Edward Willett Wagner
Born(1924-08-07)August 7, 1924
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
DiedDecember 7, 2001(2001-12-07) (aged 77)
Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma materHarvard University
OccupationProfessor and academic
Spouse(s)
Namhi Kim Wagner
​
(m. 1968)​
Military career
AllegianceUnited States
Service/branchUnited States Army
Battles/warsWorld War II

Early life and education

Wagner was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Theodore and Gertrude Wagner; Wagner had an older brother Ted, a twin brother Walter, a younger brother John, and a younger sister Rachel.[1]

Wagner graduated in 1941 at the age of 16 from Canton McKinley High School in Canton, Ohio. He enrolled at Harvard University on scholarship that fall. His undergraduate career was interrupted by World War II. Wagner briefly served in the U.S. Army during the war.[1] His interest in Korean studies arose while working as a civilian in Korea as part of the transitional U.S. military government there between 1945 and 1948.[1] After resuming his undergraduate work at Harvard in 1948, he received his bachelor's degree and master's degree from Harvard and his PhD from there in 1959.[1]

Career

After earning his PhD from Harvard in 1959, Wagner then joined Harvard's faculty, from which he retired in 1993.[1] He founded the Korea Institute at Harvard University in 1981 and served as its director until 1993.[1]

Later life and death

Wagner died on December 7, 2001 at Concord, Massachusetts from Alzheimer's disease.[1]

Personal life

Wagner lived in Lexington, Massachusetts and was married to Leonore Uhlmann from 1948 to 1966, when the couple divorced.[1] In 1968 he married Namhi Kim, who was his wife at the time of his death.[1]

Legacy

Due to his influence in the field, Wagner is often referred to as the "Father of [American] Korean Studies".[2][3]

Works
  • The Korean Minority in Japan, 1904-1950 (1951)
  • The Literati Purges: Political Conflict in Early Yi Korea (1974–1975)
  • A New History of Korea (English translation)

References
  1. Pace, Eric (December 26, 2001). "Edward Wagner, 77, an Expert At Harvard in Early Korean Life". The New York Times. New York: The New York Times Company. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  2. Lee, Hoon-sang (August 2013). "EDWARD W. WAGNER 1924 - 2001". BlogSpot. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  3. Peterson, Mark A. (September 22, 2019). "미국 한국학의 아버지이자 하버드 교수였던 Ed Wagner가 본 족보" [The genealogy seen by Ed Wagner, the father of American Korean Studies and a Harvard professor]. The Frog Outside the Well. Provo, Utah: The Frog Outside the Well Research Center. Retrieved August 21, 2020.

Further reading
  • Martina Deuchler, In Memory of Edward Willett Wagner, Acta Koreana, Vol. 5, No. 2, July 2002 (ISSN 1520-7412)
  • James B. Palais, Edward W. Wagner (1924-2001), The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 61, No. 3 (Aug., 2002), pp. 1137-1139,
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