Dick Smethurst, aged 90, died peacefully in the early morning on Saturday, May 4, 2024, in the Westminster Place Senior Living facility in Oakmont, PA. He was born in 1933 in Carlisle, PA, the youngest son of Edward William ("Bill"), Sr. and Helen (nee Wiener) Smethurst. Dick was a devoted husband, gifted scholar, fantastic teacher, avid marathon runner, Army veteran and a wonderfully charming, warm hearted, gregarious gentleman. Throughout his life, he touched many lives and is deeply missed by those left behind.
Read more about Dick Smethurst in this Association for Asian Studies article. You can also find a tribute to Dr. Dick Smethurst on Dr. Nyri A. Bakkalian's website here.
View Richard's obituary here.
- BA, Dickinson College, 1955
- MA, Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1961
- PhD, History, University of Michigan, 1968
Education & Training
A Social Basis for Prewar Japanese Militarism (California, 1974)
Agricultural Development and Tenancy Disputes in Japan, 1870-1940 (Princeton, 1986)
From Foot Soldier to Finance Minister: Takahashi Korekiyo, Japan’s Keynes (Harvard, 2007)
Additional Publications:
“Japan, the United States and the Road to World War II in the Pacific,” The Asia Pacific Journal, on line, Vol. 10, Issue 37, No. 4, September 10, 2012.
Co-editor and co-author, Tsukioka Kôgyo: The Art of Noh, 1869-1927, University of Pittsburgh website with digital photographs of woodblock prints of the Japanese noh theater created by the artist Tsukioka Kôgyo.
The modern history of the Japanese noh theater, and particularly the role that graphic artists such as Tsukioka Kôgyo, his daughter Tsukioka Gyokusei, and his student Matsuno Sôfû, played in creating interest in this theater form both in Japan and abroad.
