Steve Graw (1946?-09.20.2003)

From nhung6@ucla.edu Mon Sep 22 13:03:13 2003
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 18:19:43 -0500
From: Nhung Tuyet Tran <nhung6@ucla.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: FW: Steve Graw

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-SEAP-L@cornell.edu [mailto:owner-SEAP-L@cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Paul Gellert
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2003 1:10 PM
To: SEAP-L@cornell.edu
Subject: Steve Graw

Dear SEAP friends,
It is with great sadness that I share the news that Steve Graw passed away in his sleep very early Saturday morning at his home in Ithaca. There are visiting hours today at Wagner Funeral Home, 421 N. Aurora St., from 10 am to 10 pm. Further arrangements will be announced when available.

From mchale@gwu.edu Wed Sep 24 12:37:16 2003
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 22:38:53 -0400
From: mchale <mchale@gwu.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Reflections on Steve Graw

Dear list,

As I gather some members of this list must know, Steve Graw, a long-time student and friend of Vietnam, died on the morning of September 20. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer. He was 57 years old. At the time of his death, he was writing up his doctoral dissertation in Development Sociology at Cornell University. While I realize that Steve may be a stranger to many of you, I hope you will bear with me as I pen a few rushed reflections on the man.

I talked to Steve Friday night, and at that time he sounded very weak. He also astonished me by saying that he was keeping his spirits up! After talking to his wife Emily, my family decided to go up to Ithaca to visit him. Unfortunately, Steve had died by the time that we arrived.

I first met Steve in 1984 (I believe), when he was studying Vietnamese at SEASSI in Ann Arbor. Steve had a fascinating personal history. He was the son of a member of the communist party, from which, I surmised, he got his deep interest in causes of social justice. (He was also, I might add, born Jewish, but Judaism as a religion seemed not to interest him in the least.) He went to UCLA (in meterology, I believe), He was an early opponent of the Vietnam War -- in fact, he left the US and spent time in London, I believe, as a draft evader. When I first met him in the 1980s, he was active in sending medical and other supplies to Vietnam. This he was doing at a time when the vast majority of Americans were happy to practice amnesia about Vietnam.

While Steve never gave up his activism and his interest in radical causes, he mellowed with age. He became a Buddhist (in the 1980s?), for one, a teaching which gave him some comfort in his last months.

Steve had an iconoclastic sense of humor. Not everyone liked it, but I usually did! He loved politics, and even after he was diagnosed with cancer, he still loved to chat about politics. (After he was diagnosed with cancer, he even launched a campaign to stop Cornell from building yet another parking lot near the woods that are next to the Kahin Center for Southeast Asian Studies. I believe that his campaign has been successful, and that the town of Ithaca is turning down Cornell's request for the parking lot.)

A few months before Steve died, he said to me that he was happy to be able to say that he had had a good ten years of marriage (he was married in a Buddhist ceremony in Ithaca, NY in 1993 to his wife Emily, a Filipina of Chinese origin.) It is sad, however, that he leaves behind two wonderful young girls, one seven, one three.

when I left Ithaca, plans were afoot to have a funeral in the Tibetan monastery in Ithaca (hopefully this Tuesday), with a memorial service at some future date.

As someone who has known him almost twenty years, I can say that his presence, his fundamental decency, and his kindness will be sorely missed.

Shawn McHale
Associate Professor of History and International Affairs
The George Washington University
e-mail address: mchale@gwu.edu

From m.digregorio@fordfound.org Wed Sep 24 12:37:34 2003
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 20:56:50 -0700
From: Michael DiGregorio <m.digregorio@fordfound.org>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: RE: Steve Graw

Let me add to this memorial.

I first met Steve at the 2001 AAS conference in Chicago after having been in touch with him for years over the internet. I remember Steve as struggling like the rest of us with our logical-positivist training and a feeling that this was not enough to capture what he wanted to say. This latter aspect was a reflection of his deep concern for the welfare of the people in the territorial and disciplinary areas where he worked. We saw it in his requests for flood assistance, in his postings regarding the maltreatment of foreign students in post 9-11 America, and most of all, in his postings to us, right up to the end. I have on my desk a small memento that Steve sent me. I assume many of you also have these mementos. I hope these small tokens continue to remind of us of his always poignant service to our small group.

Mike

Michael DiGregorio, Ph.D.
Program Officer
Arts and Culture, Education and Scholarship
The Ford Foundation
Hanoi, Vietnam

From tana@uow.edu.au Mon Sep 22 13:03:24 2003
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 09:45:32 +1000
From: Tana Li <tana@uow.edu.au>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: FW: Steve Graw

Dear Nhung,

I am so sorry to hear this sad news. I have never met Steve Graw but always felt that he was someone special. I will miss the views he has shared with us on the VSG.

Tana

From hhtai@fas.harvard.edu Mon Sep 22 13:04:20 2003
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 20:07:00 -0400
From: Hue Tam H. Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: FW: Steve Graw

I did meet Steve several times, and I am also very saddened by his death. He'd prepared for it for quite a while. Some time ago, he sent a keepsake for those who wrote to ask for one, to remember him after he'd died. And yet, he was engaged to the very end, as those of us who read his posts on immigration and other topics can attest.
Several years ago, when floods hit the Mekong Delta where Steve had spent so much of his working life, he appealed for donations. I sent him some money, and later he sent a copy of an article that was published in Tuoi Tre about his going to the paper's office with the funds he'd collected. He was rather amused at the publicity he'd generated.
Steve had strong opinions, as all of us on VSG know. Whether we agreed with all of his opinions, there was never any doubt that Steve was passionately committed to bettering the lives of people in the Mekong Delta and to the underdog in general. I hope his work can live on.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

From judithh@u.washington.edu Mon Sep 22 13:04:53 2003
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 09:36:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Judith Henchy <judithh@u.washington.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: FW: Steve Graw

I would like to join with others in expressing my great sadness at this loss. Steve did indeed bring a great sense of humour, iconoclasm and insight to the list.

He will be greatly missed.

If people would like to write their memories of him and his contribution to Vietnam studies, I can post them to the web site.

Judith

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judith Henchy
Head, Southeast Asia Section, Box 352900
University of Washington Libraries
Seattle, WA 98195

Telephone: (206) 543 3986
Fax: (206) 685 8049

Web address: http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/
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From aduki@compuserve.com Wed Sep 24 12:34:54 2003
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 13:40:29 +1000
From: "Aduki @ Compuserve" <aduki@compuserve.com>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: RE: FW: Steve Graw

This is awful. I had a number of communications with Steve and felt that he was somebody, special, committed, and passionate.

Adam Fforde

Website: www.aduki.com.au with free downloads of research output, free monthly newsletter on economic conditions in Vietnam, and full contact details in Australia and Vietnam.
Contact details:
27 McArthur Rd., Ivanhoe, Melbourne Vic 3079, AUSTRALIA
Tel 61 3 9497 3493; Fax 61 3 9497 4856
Mobiles: 61 (0) 419 287 176 (Australia)
84 (0) 903 726 440 (Vietnam)

From sdenney@uclink4.berkeley.edu Wed Sep 24 12:38:55 2003
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 18:10:40 -0700
From: Stephen Denney <sdenney@uclink4.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: RE: Steve Graw

I did not know Steve well and we had some differences in our political views, but I remember when he visited the Indochina Archive where I worked around 15 years ago and he seemed quite nice. We even sponsored a slideshow talk he gave on campus about a recent visit to Vietnam. Actually that was largely because of the efforts of a graduate student who was working for us and had attended intensive Vietnamese language classes with Steve.

I remember when my former supervisor Doug Pike passed away last year, Steve had some nice things to say about him and I appreciated that.

He was certainly a lively presence in this group.

- Steve Denney

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003, Qui-Phiet Tran wrote:

> I never had a chance to meet Steve Graw, but having seen obituaries on the VSG site recently I've come to admire him very much. Would Judith Henchy or someone know if there is an archive of his postings/writings that I can access in order to learn more about this remarkable man and his work?
>
> Thanks!
> Qui-Phiet Tran
> Professor Emeritus of English
> Schreiner University
> 2100 Memorial Blvd
> Kerrville, TX 78028
> USA

From judithh@u.washington.edu Wed Sep 24 12:40:57 2003
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 11:39:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Judith Henchy <judithh@u.washington.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: FW: Steve Graw

Dear List

In response to Qui Phiet's question, we do archive some of the VSG discussions. They are on the web site at:
http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/Elist.html We are currently quite behind on keeping the web site updated, since Phuong has been away for the summer.

The discussions are organized by topic, so I cannot say whether or not they include contributions from Steve. Generally speaking, I do not archive topics of a sensitive polemical nature. It may be the case that these were the types of exchanges in which Steve was at his best.

Judith
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judith Henchy
Head, Southeast Asia Section, Box 352900
University of Washington Libraries
Seattle, WA 98195
Telephone: (206) 543 3986
Fax: (206) 685 8049
Web address: http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/
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From mchale@gwu.edu Sat Sep 27 23:29:38 2003
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 14:14:45 -0400
From: mchale <mchale@gwu.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: For those who want to send condolences to Steve Graw's wife

Dear list,

Sorry to clog up the list with this, but those of you who wish to send condolences to Steve Graw's wife can send letters and cards to:

Emily Graw
2702 Hasbrouck Apts
Cornell University
ITHACA, NY, 14850

I might also add that Emily would love to receive reminiscences of Steve, particularly so that her two young girls can learn more about their father. Don't worry about your literary abilities (but perhaps, if you are more literary, you should not try to emulate James Joyce OR Raymond Carver . . . :)

Shawn McHale

From dnfox@u.washington.edu Sat Sep 27 23:30:41 2003
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 20:08:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Diane N. Fox <dnfox@u.washington.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: For those who want to send condolences to Steve Graw's wife

Dear Shawn,

Thank you so much for both your messages today. I was very grateful to learn a little more of Steve's life. If such messages as yours ever are looked on as "clogging up" the system...well then, we know the system is inhuman.

Again, many thanks.

Diane

From thompsonc2@southernct.edu Fri Sep 26 15:59:01 2003
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 15:55:58 -0400
From: C. Michele Thompson <thompsonc2@southernct.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: FW: Steve Graw

I first got to know Steve at my first SEASSI at Cornell. He was always generous with his time and his expertise and although I didn't see him very often I will miss him at future meetings of AAS. To echo others, whether you agreed with him or not, you always knew that he cared.
sincerely
Michele Thompson

From victor.alneng@socant.su.se Mon Sep 29 13:15:33 2003
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2003 07:49:36 +0200
From: Victor Alneng <victor.alneng@socant.su.se>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: hullaballo and Steve Graw

Dear Joe and all others,

In honor of the spirit of Steve Graw, I'd say "hullaballo" is indeed the correct social science term. I never met Steve but I can honestly say, from what I have learnt from his posts and from what has been said about him since his sad departure (most notably the touching post from Shawn), that I truly admire him. Not only did he manage to combine serious scholarship with dedicated activism and a good chunk of fantastic humor, he also seemed to be one of those rare persons who was able to trace connections rather than merely demarcate Kantian Ding an Sich.

This list is now considerably poorer, and the occasional hullaballos could serve as reminders of what this list, Steve's family, Vietnam and the world has lost...

Sincerly
Victor

From kwt3@cornell.edu Mon Sep 29 13:18:04 2003
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2003 13:01:31 -0400
From: K. W. Taylor <kwt3@cornell.edu>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Steve Graw

There are three things that are important about Steve Graw for me. One is that in the 1980s, before it became fashionable, he was actively engaged in the task of US-Vietnamese reconciliation. The second is that he wrote a masters thesis at Cornell University in 1995 entitled "Nam Tien and the Development of Vietnamese Regionalism," which is a gem that deserves greater attention than it has received; he challenged the, at that time, taboo of Vietnamese national unity forever to seriously engage the question of regional identities in Vietnam. The third is that, although unfortunately never brought to fruition, his dissertation research was a comparative study of overseas remitances and their effect on rural communities in Luzon and southern Vietnam. It was a brilliant idea, and he amassed a wealth of data, which in his lifetime he was hot allowed to fully digest and to present.

Keith Taylor

From dgm405@coombs.anu.edu.au Mon Sep 29 13:18:59 2003
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 14:34:35 +1000
From: David Marr <dgm405@coombs.anu.edu.au>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Steve in the 1980s

Most VSG list members are probably not aware of Steve Graw's tireless leadership of the US-Vietnam Friendship and Aid Association of Southern California before he came to Cornell. I first met Steve in 1985, when he invited me to meet Association members in LA and give a talk, after which Steve kindly volunteered to drive me to my mother's home in Santa Barbara. I also met Steve's mother, Ethel Kraus, and could see where he got some of his industry and perseverance.

The Association's Medical Aid Project raised many thousands of dollars to be able to ship donated medicines, surgical aids, and textbooks -- at a time when such items were still extremely scarce in Vietnam. I still remember Steve's explanation of the process, from fundraising to collection of donated materials (more than 3 tons in 1987 alone!), packing, clearances (hostile customs agents), containerization and dispatch from a Santa Ana warehouse. He travelled to Vietnam several times, partly to make sure materials were reaching their agreed upon destinations.

I helped to convince Steve to enroll in SEASSI's 1985 Vietnamese course at Ann Arbor, and he really enjoyed the experience, moving on to the advanced level in 1987. Meanwhile, he sustained his interest in the Philippines, and I believe subsequently enrolled in Tagalog as well.

Until the advent of email, Steve's preferred mode of communication was the aerogramme, which I always looked forward to receiving, as he managed to cram in lots of information and commentary in the small space available. His humanity and his commitment were an inspiration to me, and I think to many others as well.

David Marr
Australian National University

Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 11:19:16 +0000
From: Tobias Rettig <magic_rettig@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Steve Graw

Dear List Members,

The various emails over the last week or so concerning Steve Graw's departure from his body and this world had the effect of triggering memories associated Ralph Smith's death in December 2000, as well as some very pragmatic questions / concerns relating to the academic world.

ONE. What happens to his unpublished work: i.e. the Cornell Masters thesis mentioned by Professor Taylor, the chapters he is likely to have written for his Ph.D. thesis. Is there any chance getting some of this published (in a journal, in a monograph, or on the internet?) and thus making it available to the wider community of scholars, while at the same time honouring his work? In the case of Ralph Smith, for instance, Judy Stowe is currently trying to bring all his journal articles together, plus perhaps some unfinished work, in view of publishing them in book form.

TWO. What happens to Steve books, documents, etc.? Will they stay within the family, will they be donated to a library or archive? In the case of Ralph Smith, unfortunately, a lot of material just seems to have been discarded instead of being "re-cycled" into the hands of a publicly accessible institution, or scholars interested in the subject.

As an outsider, I do not know whether Steve also prepared these aspects of his departure, nor what his family's, close friends' and colleagues' stance is. There might be more pressing needs right now, but, personally, I would urge those who knew him and who can make a difference, to reflect and perhaps act on these pragmatic concerns.

With best wishes from London,
Tobias Rettig

Tobias Rettig
Ph.D. Student
History Department
SOAS
London

--- Vincent K Pollard <pollard@HAWAII.EDU> wrote:
> Steve Graw is listed (21 September 2003) under the "Deceased Asianists" heading in the "Member/Miscellaneous News" section, _Asian
> Studies Newsletter_, vol. 48, issue 4 (Winter 2003), p. 22.

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 06:05:56 -0800
From: James Ross <jross22@YAHOO.COM>
Reply-To: Southeast Asia Discussion List <SEASIA-L@list.msu.edu>
To: SEASIA-L@list.msu.edu
Subject: Re: Stephen M. Graw (Cornell University)

This belated news is very sad indeed. Steve was a terrific guy, passionate about Vietnam. I remember his wedding in Ithaca to Emily See from the Philippines in 1993, a wonderful crazy mix of chanting Buddhist monks and Filipino pop singers crooning anti-imperialist songs. The wedding was in a park and passersby were a bit startled by the spectacle, but Steve loved it.

Jim Ross

Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 00:03:48 -1000
From: Vincent K Pollard <pollard@HAWAII.EDU>
Reply-To: Southeast Asia Discussion List <SEASIA-L@list.msu.edu>
To: SEASIA-L@list.msu.edu
Subject: Re: Stephen M. Graw (Cornell University)

Following up on Jim Ross's commentary, let me add that Steve Graw was serious about learning languages.

A student of Vietnamese, Steve later took it upon himself to learn Filipino/Tagalog. We were in the same cohort at SEASSI (intensive) and AFAP (immersion) in 1992 and 1994, respectively.

At AFAP, we both struggled with the verbs. But we persisted. And perhaps because we were more experienced than many of our younger classmates, we felt comfortable engaging people in certain kinds of political conversations. I recall an impromptu but assigned July 1994 interview that we did in Los Ban~os, Laguna Province, Philippines. Students were to elicit attitudes toward President Ramos's controversial value-added tax. At one point on a hot afternoon, Steve, another student and I pursued this inquiry with Filipino laborers near the UPLB campus. Although this conversation was underway when Steve showed up, he couldn't resist easing himself into the interchange of information and commentary.

For anyone interested in a summary of Steve Graw's 1994 M.S. thesis, the URL to his "Nam Tien and the Development of Vietnamese Regionalism" is www.cals.cornell.edu/polson/gradbios.htm. When you get to Cornell University's page for the Polson Institute for Global Development, just scroll down through the names alphabetically. Also, two publications of Steve's are listed on that web page.

For his doctoral dissertation, Steve was awarded the Rural Sociological Society's "Endowment Fund Award" in 1999, according to that Society's web page at http://ruralsociology.org/activities/awards.html.

And for Steve's own account that year of "Life After Graduation," see Leuzinger High School's "Remembering Steve Graw" webpage for that
story. The URL is http://home.comcast.net/~lhs-63/Steve-Graw.htm. Steve was a member of the graduating class of 1963.

Finally, www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/org/stevegraw.html is the URL to other informal but informative remembrances on the Vietnam Studies Group e-mail list.

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