Donald Gillin, 1930-2005 My father, Donald G. Gillin, died a year ago tonight. His death from Alzheimer's Disease at 75 was tragic for one so intellectually vibrant, but Alzheimer's is an unforgiving disease. He had taken great care of his body for many years, but he was unable to escape the clutches of an illness that robbed him of his mind.

I'm posting this entry because I recently became aware that news of his death apparently did not disseminate through the standard communications channels. My dad was a terrible record-keeper. He had no Rolodex and whatever contact information he had consisted of phone numbers scrawled on slips of paper that he kept in his wallet. When he died, I had no way to contact the people who might want to know the news. I submitted obituaries to his alma mater and to the leading professional journal in his field of Asian studies, but apparently neither ever published anything. I learned this by contacting a colleague and friend of his recently, who was unaware of my dad's passing.

I'm posting this in hopes that someone searching for news of my dad will come by this blog entry. Below is the obituary that ran in the local newspaper. Please contact me if you'd like to know more.

SHREWSBURY, MA. - Donald Gillin, Ph. D., a noted China scholar and former head of the Asian Studies program at Vassar College, died on Aug. 28 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 75.

Dr. Gillin taught at Vassar from 1968 until his retirement in 1992. He was previously a faculty member at Duke University. A fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker, he was noted for talents as a lecturer and story-teller. His innovative "Hollywood on Asia" course at Vassar at one point drew enrollment of almost 15% of the Vassar student body. An accompanying slide set on images of China in popular media sold more than 700 copies when produced by The Asia Society.

Dr. Gillin served as a visiting member of the faculty at the Universities of Michigan and North Carolina, Stanford University, San Francisco State College, Arizona State University and Sir George Williams University in Montreal. He delivered scores of papers and lectures at conferences and symposia around the world, including many meetings of the Association for Asian Studies.

His books included Warlord: Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province 1911-1949 (Princeton University Press, 1967) and East Asia: A Bibliography for Undergraduate Libraries (BroDard Publishing Company, 1970). Warlord is still in use as a college textbook nearly 40 years after it was published. He co-authored Last Chance in Manchuria (Hoover Press, 1989) and Prescriptions for Saving China: Selected Writings of Sun Yat-sen (Hoover Institution Press, 1994). His monograph, Falsifying China's History: The Case of Sterling Seagrave's The Soong Dynasty ( Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 1986) caused a small sensation in Asian studies circles for its empassioned refutation of the bestselling Soong Dynasty.

Dr. Gillin also published dozens of articles in scholarly journals, including The Journal of Asian Studies, South Atlantic Quarterly, Encyclopedia Britannica, Journal of Modern History, and American Historical Review. Born in San Francisco, Dr. Gillin earned B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. A recipient of Ford Foundation and Stanford grants, he studied Chinese language in Taiwan and Hong Kong before joining the Duke faculty in 1959. He joined the Vassar faculty in 1968.

Dr. Gillin's wife, Rose Marie, died in 2000. He leaves two children: Paul Gillin of Westboro, Mass. and Presto Rubel of Brimfield, Mass. He also leaves two grandchildren. A cremation is planned. Donations may be made to the Alzheimer's Association. Communications may be sent to Paul Gillin, 4 Thurber St., Framingham, MA 01702.  ¶ 7:26 PM 12 Comments

  Crunch time I've been quiet these last two weeks because the deadline for delivering The New Influencers to the publisher is suddenly very real, and I've got three chapters and a profile still to go. The good news is that Chapters 5 & 6 are available for you to review at the drafts page. There's a lot I want to write about, but most of that energy is going into what you find there.

If you're a student of computer history and appreciate great writing, be sure to check out Charlie Babcock's excellent feature called What's the Greatest Software Ever Written? over at Informationweek. If you're expecting to find a comparison of Quicken vs. MS Money, forget it. Charlie went way back in computing history and also looked at embedded, scientific and medical applications. Some of the choices will surprise you.  ¶ 7:30 AM 1 Comments