CHRONOLOGY
| 1919, August 9 |
Born in the Bronx, New York, son of William E. and Mildred Marquette de Bary. |
| 1923–1937 |
Raised in Leonia, New Jersey. Graduated as valedictorian, Class of 1937, Leonia High School. |
| 1937–1941 |
Attended Columbia College, New York, on Honor Scholarship; Manager of Debate Council; Chair of Student Governing Board; Phi Beta Kappa; Awarded Henry Evans Traveling Fellowship on graduation, June 1941. |
| 1941 Fall |
Started graduate study at Harvard, but after December 7 was recruited by Naval Intelligence to attend Navy Japanese Language School in Berkeley, California, and then Boulder, Colorado (1942). |
| 1943–1945 |
Commissioned as Ensign USNR. Served in Pacific theater: Pearl Harbor, Aleutians campaign, Summer 1944; Battle of Okinawa, Spring 1945; occupation of Japan, fall 1945; spring 1946 in charge of Far East desk of Office of Naval Intelligence, Washington, D.C., with rank of Lieutenant Commander. |
| 1946 Fall |
Graduate study at Columbia University, M.A. earned in 1948. Doctoral research in China 1949 on Fulbright Fellowship. Dissertation approved 1953 with Distinction. |
| 1946–1952 |
Put in charge of new Oriental Studies program of Columbia College, teaching Oriental Humanities and Oriental Civilizations and preparing texts and translations for use in same (see bibliography, below). |
| 1953–1956 |
Formal appointment as Assistant Professor and Chair of University Committee on Oriental Studies (name later changed to “University Committee on Asia and the Middle East”). |
| 1959–1966 |
Chair of Department of Chinese and Japanese (name later changed to “East Asian Languages and Cultures”). |
| 1960–1972 |
Director, East Asian Languages and Area Center. |
| 1966–1967 |
Sabbatical in Kyoto, Japan, and Taipei, Taiwan. |
| 1968–1969 |
Elected to Executive Committee of Faculty representing Faculty of Philosophy. Joined in setting up new University Senate, then elected Chair of the Executive Committee of the Senate. Wrote report on conduct of Senate, 1976. |
| 1971–1976 |
Asked to serve as Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost. Restored University to balanced budget after successive deficits in 1968 and after (see Provost’s Report of 1976). |
| 1975 |
Initiated Society of Fellows in the Humanities. |
| 1976–1977 |
Sabbatical in Kyoto, Japan, followed by travel in China as guest of People’s Republic. |
| 1976 |
Initiated Heyman Center for the Humanities Project. Center built in 1981. |
| 1978–1989 |
Returned to teaching. Active as Chair of Publication Committee of the University Committee on Asia and Middle East. |
| 1981–2004 |
Director, Heyman Center for the Humanities. |
| 1988 |
Initiated Society of Senior Scholars, Heyman Center. |
| 1989 |
de Bary Class of 1941 Endowed Professorship in Asian Humanities established. |
| 1989 |
Invited by PRC Confucian Association to give keynote address at celebration for Confucius’s birthday in Beijing. |
| 1989 |
Formally retired as regular member of faculty but continued to teach pro bono as Special Service Professor in Core courses. |
POSITIONS
Chairman, University Committee on Oriental Studies, 1953–1961
Director, East Asian Language and Area Center, 1960–1972
Chairman, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, 1960–1966
Carpentier Professor of Oriental Studies, Columbia University, 1966–1978
Chairman, Executive Committee, University Senate, 1969–1971
President, Association for Asian Studies, 1969–1970
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, 1971–1978
John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University, 1979–1990
Director, Heyman Center for the Humanities, 1981–2004
Special Service Professor 1990–
FOUNDER
Heyman Center for the Humanities
The Society of Fellows in the Humanities
The Society of Senior Scholars
The University Lectures
Trilling Seminars
The University Seminars in Neo-Confucian Studies and Asian Thought and Religion
Alumni Colloquia in the Humanities
Legacies Series for 250th Anniversary
DISTINCTIONS AND AWARDS
Watumull Prize of the American Historical Association, 1958
Fishburn Prize of Educational Press Association, 1964
Great Teacher Award, Columbia University, 1969
Honorary Doctor of Letters, St. Lawrence University, 1968
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Loyola University of Chicago, 1970
John Jay Award, Columbia College, 1971
Editorial Board, American Scholar, 1971–1997
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1974; Member of the Council
Guggenheim Fellow, 1981–1982
Ch’ien Mu Lectureship, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1982
Award for Excellence, Graduate Faculties Alumni, 1983
Director, American Council of Learned Societies, 1978–1986
Lionel Trilling Book Award, 1983; Mark Van Doren Prize, 1987
Guest Lecturer, College de France, 1986
Inaugural Lecturer, Edwin O. Reischauer Lectureship in East Asian Affairs, Harvard University, 1986
Tanner Lectureship, University of California, Berkeley, 1988
Order of the Rising Sun (Third Class), 1993
Honorary Doctor of Letters, Columbia University, 1994
Alexander Hamilton Medal, 1994, 1999
Frank Tannenbaum Memorial Award, University Seminars
President’s Townsend Harris Founder’s Day Medal, City College of New York, 1996
American Philosophical Society, 1999
Tang Jun-yi Lectureship, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004–2005
Philolexian Society Award, 2010
Thomas Merton Honorary Lectureship, 2010
Honorary Member Japan Academy, 2010
Sources of Japanese Tradition (1st ed., New York: Columbia University Press, 1958; 2nd ed., vols. 1–2, 2001, 2004).
Approaches to the Oriental Classics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958).
Sources of Chinese Tradition (1st ed., New York: Columbia University Press, 1960; 2nd ed., vols. 1–2, 1999, 2000).
Sources of Indian Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1960; rev. ed., 1988).
Sources of Korean Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997; 2nd. ed., 2001).
Sources of East Asian Tradition, 2 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008).
Translation of Five Women Who Loved Love (Rutland, Vt.: C. E. Tuttle, 1956).
A Guide to Oriental Classics (1st ed., New York: Columbia University Press, 1964; 2nd ed., 1975; 3rd ed., 1988).
Approaches to Asian Civilizations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964).
The Buddhist Tradition (New York: Random House, 1969).
Self and Society in Ming Thought (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970).
Letters from War-Wasted Asia (New York: Kodansha, 1975).
The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1975).
Principle and Practicality: Neo-Confucianism and Practical Learning (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979).
Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy and the Learning of the Mind and Heart (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).
Yüan Thought: Essays on Chinese Thought and Religion Under the Mongols (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).
The Liberal Tradition in China (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press of Hong Kong, 1983; New York: Columbia University Press, 1983).
The Rise of Neo-Confucianism in Korea (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985).
East Asian Civilizations: A Dialogue in Five Stages (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987).
The Message of the Mind in Neo-Confucianism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).
Neo-Confucian Education (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989).
Eastern Canons: Approaches to the Asian Classics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).
Learning for One’s Self (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991).
The Trouble with Confucianism (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991).
Waiting for the Dawn: A Plan for the Prince (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).
Confucianism and Human Rights (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).
Asian Values and Human Rights (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998).
Asia in the Core Curriculum (New York: Heyman Center, 2001).
Nobility and Civility: Asian Ideals of Leadership and Civil Society (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004).
Living Legacies at Columbia (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006).
Confucian Tradition and Global Education (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007).
Classics for an Emerging World (New York: University Committee on Asia and the Middle East, 2008).
Finding Wisdom in East Asian Classics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011).
