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Professor Donald Warren Treadgold, long-time professor of
Russian History at the University of Washington, died
unexpectedly from acute leukemia on December 13, 1994.
He was born 72 years ago in Silverton, Oregon, and he had
a long, illustrious career as a great scholar and teacher. He
earned his B.A. degree in 1943 at the University of Oregon.
His studies were interrupted by military service between
1943 and 1946 in Europe where he rose to the rank of
captain in the military intelligence. In 1947 he earned his
Master's degree at Harvard and his Doctor of Philosophy
three years later at Oxford. In 1949 he joined the University
of Washington from which he retired at the end of June
1993.
To his colleagues, Donald Treadgold was best known as a
superb and prolific scholar. He produced literally hundreds
of articles, monographs, book reviews, and other
publications, including such seminal monographs as Lenin
and His Rivals (1955), The Great Siberian Migration
(1957), The West in Russia and China (1973), A History of
Christianity (1979), and Twentieth Century Russia (1959),
the eighth edition of which will be published posthumously
by Westview Press. He co-edited numerous other
publications, such as Gorbachev and the Soviet Future
(1988, with Larry Lerner), seven volumes of A History of
East-Central Europe (with me), and his last editorial
accomplishment Render unto Caesar: Religion and World
Politics (with Sabrina Ramet).
Donald Treadgold was also instrumental in the success of
The Slavic Review, the well-known journal of the American
Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
(AAASS). He was managing editor of the journal from
1961 (when its name was changed from The American
Slavic and East European Review) to 1965, and under his
management it became a first-rate scholarly periodical. The
journal's success was the result in no small part to his
thoroughness as editor -- he is the only editor I ever knew
who would not approve an article for publication until he
checked every footnote to make certain they were absolutely
correct! That this took much time did not matter to him; he
had to do what he considered to be the proper and required
job. When the publication ran into some difficulties again, it
was Professor Treadgold who was asked to resume the job
of Managing Editor for a second time, from 1968 to 1975,
although he had to add this burden to the already time-
consuming position of Chairperson of the History
Department. This was typical of Donald Treadgold, who
never refused to step in when help was needed by an
organization or a friend.
To do things properly and correctly was part of Donald
Treadgold's characteristics and values. Added to this was a
certain noblesse oblige, which made him accept assignments
from university departments and scholarly organizations.
The services he rendered are too many to list, as are the major
awards and honors he received.
Professor Treadgold was an exceptional teacher of both
graduates and undergraduates while upholding the highest
academic standards and values of scholarly research. His
interest in his students went far beyond the class room.
Every day, when the University was in session, he appeared
at 9:30 in the cafeteria of the Student Union where any
student could join him and discuss academic, national, world
and private problems with him. The number of foreign
students who found out what Thanksgiving is by joining the
Treadgolds is large. His students became attached to him
for life. At every AAASS meeting members of The Gang,
as these ex-students call themselves, had a reunion dinner
with their master and friend. Not only the students of the
University of Washington profited from Professor
Treadgold's ability to share his knowledge. He gave lectures
at some fifty other institutions and served as visiting
professor/scholar at the National University at Taipei, the
University of Hawaii, the Academy of Sciences in Moscow,
and the Toyo Bunko in Tokyo.
Students were not the only ones who benefited from
Professor Treadgold's interest in their well being and from
his friendship. So did numerous colleagues including
myself. As I wrote elsewhere: "Don was a man who
fostered not only his own but many other careers with his
encouragement and suggestions. He had his own vision of
things, but he was able and willing to listen to those of
others..." He not only listened, but helped when he could.
In a letter which I received from a respected colleague after
Professor Treadgold's death I read: "...when I wrote
something for publication I usually had Don in mind as my
main reader. I wanted what I wrote to be something that he
would approve..." The number of colleagues who thought
this way and were helped by both the criticism and the approval
they received from Donald Treadgold is numerous indeed.
We lost a great scholar and teacher, but those of us who
knew him - and this includes a great number of friends all
over the world - lost an exemplary human being. I already
wrote about his helpfulness, his belief that things must
always be done well as one's ability permits, but if I have to
list his main characteristics, I must begin with loyalty. This
belonged, first, foremost and always to his family for whom
he always had time even in the midst of the most hectic
circumstances. His love for them was boundless and
unconditional. He was more proud of them than of anything
else in life. Next came his friends Even if they disappointed
him on occasion, they remained his friends and their
weaknesses were overlooked.
Donald Treadgold loved travel, good food, fine wines. He
loved classical music, especially opera, and he relaxed in the
swimming pool and on the hand ball court. This much
everybody knew who had more than a passing acquaintance
with him. What most people did not realize was that he had
a magnificent sense of humor and appreciated a good joke,
even a practical one at his expense. This is something those
of us who had lunch with him regularly will miss together
with everything else which he represented. Their feeling of
loss is shared by the many colleagues and friends, in and out
of academia, all over the world who profited from Professor
Treadgold's help and advice, enjoyed his company and
loved him. I am certain that Professor Treadgold had his
weaknesses and faults like all human beings, but well and
closely as I knew him, I cannot think of anything that would
have bothered me in his case.
Peter F. Sugar
Professor Emeritus of History
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