James Coffin Harle ’42

Jim, a linguist and eminent historian and curator of Eastern art at Oxford University, died June 27, 2004.

Having prepared at St. George's School in Rhode Island, at Princeton he achieved highest honors in history and election to Phi Beta Kappa. He was a member of Colonial Club.

After serving with distinction as a Navy navigator-bomber during World War II, Jim returned to Princeton, was appointed assistant to the dean of the college, and studied and tutored English.

In 1949 he married Jacqueline Ruch (who died in 1968). Their life-changing tour of India in 1951 ignited Jim's interest in early Indian art and architecture. Fortuitously his studies of Sanskrit during a second visit to India led Jim to Oxford, where in 1956, he earned a "First" in Sanskrit and Pali. He remained in Oxford studying Indian art history, and in 1959 was awarded a D.Phil. (equivalent of a PhD) for his thesis on South Indian temple gateways.

In 1967 Jim was appointed curator of Eastern Art at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. From 1970 until he retired in 1987, Jim was also a fellow of Christ Church, Oxford. Previously widowed twice, Jim married Betty (Lady Hulbert) in 1973.

For many years Jim and Betty, an accomplished photographer, toured India to collect material for Jim's many articles and books. His magnum opus was the highly acclaimed The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent.

To Betty and Jim's stepchildren and many devoted colleagues and friends, the class expresses its deepest condolences.

The Class of 1942