William Theodore de Bary (1919– )
Educator, Scholar
Columbia College 1941, PhD 1953, LittD (hon.) 1994
Faculty 1953–90
Emeritus 1990–present

Ted is Mr. Columbia: Special service professor 1990– (he still teaches more courses—and without stipend—than any other professor in the East Asian Languages and Cultures Department); John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University 1979–90; executive vice president and provost 1971–78; president of the Association for Asian Studies 1969–70; chairman, University Senate Executive Committee 1969–71. It is principally owing to Ted's exertions that academic civility dominated the discourse at Columbia on the appropriate role of the academy during the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s. Further, Ted basically invented the field of Neo-Confucian studies, while championing an entirely new vision of the place of Asia in general education and the core curriculum.

Contributed by Peter Nosco, Columbia College 1971, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1978, who is solely responsible for the content.