Lawrence Washington Chisolm ’50

Larry Chisolm died Apr. 29, 1998, at his home in Buffalo, N.Y., after a long bout with cancer. He was 69.

Larry prepared at St. Mark's, where he was yearbook editor, in student government, and played football and basketball. At Princeton he majored in S.P.I.A., was on the class memorial fund executive committee, played rugby, and belonged to Cottage.

After three years in the Navy, he earned his PhD at Yale, specializing in East Asian studies, and taught there until 1968. He then went to the U. of Buffalo for the last 30 years of his career. His interdisciplinary approach to American studies, novel 30 years ago, combined a traditional emphasis on history, literature, and the arts with a new appreciation of the social sciences, particularly social anthropology.

Active in civil rights and motivated by idealism, Larry marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He actively opposed the Vietnam War, using his negotiating talents to mediate between students and the U.B. administration in the late 1960s.

He guided many students with his love and deep respect for the natural world and social justice. Those close to Larry remember him as a warm, generous man and an inspired teacher.

Larry is survived by his wife, Patricia Shelly, and five daughters, Anne Waters, Ruth, Elizabeth Paun, Susan Bliss, and Sarah Orlov, to whom the class offers its deepest sympathy.

The Class of 1950