The purpose of the Endowment is to augment collections in all formats, aid preservation treatments, and provide funds for programs, activities and travel to enhance the Southeast Asia program of the University Libraries.

Julie Forbush had a long fascination with the Buddhist literature and architecture of Thailand. After the death of her husband, she spent five years in Chiang Mai and worked as an editor for the Social Research Institute at Chiang Mai University.

Her work culminated with her editing a "Catalogue of Palm-Leaf Texts on Microfilm," published in 1986. This project also led her to travel throughout northern Thailand on her own, recording the varieties of Buddhist temple architecture found throughout the region. In 1988 she decided to return to the States and settled in Seattle where she could have access to the Southeast Asian collection at the University Libraries.

Her offer to be the founding editor of SEASPAN, the newsletter of the Northwest Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies was readily accepted by Charles Keyes, professor of anthropology and international studies and then director of the Consortium.

In the last ten years of her life she worked on a manuscript describing the origins of northern Thai Buddhist architecture which, to date, has not been published.

Through her estate, Ms. Forbush made a gift of $20,812 toward establishing The Forbush Southeast Asia Endowed Library Fund.

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