[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 22 (Wednesday, February 26, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1684-S1685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE DEATH OF WILCOMB WASHBURN

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, on Saturday, February 1, Wilcomb 
Washburn, a champion of unfashionable truths and a scholar in the 
truest sense of the word, died here in Washington. He had retired as 
director of the Smithsonian's American Studies Program exactly a month 
before, on January 1, after almost 40 years at the institution. He was 
72 years old.
  He remained dedicated, most especially, to the integrity of academic 
life and to keeping the spirit of free inquiry from being compromised 
by politics. Perhaps more than anyone else, he recognized the grave 
threat posed by the politicization of scholarly professional 
associations.
  Last year I had the honor to present him with the National 
Association of Scholars' Sidney Hook Award in recognition of his work. 
In his acceptance speech, he quoted the sociologist James Coleman, the 
first recipient of the Hook Award: ``The greatest enemies of academic 
freedom in the university are the norms that exist about what kinds of 
questions may be raised in research.'' Coleman was nearly expelled from 
the American Sociological Association for his findings on the effect of 
home and neighborhood environment on learning. Wilcomb Washburn had a 
vision of the academy as a place that would live up to the ideal of the 
open society in which no claims on truth are more privileged than 
others. As he said in his acceptance speech that day ``let us hope that 
those who have chosen to speak truth to power rather than power to 
truth will prevail.''
  Wilcomb Washburn was also a U.S. Marine, serving in both World War II 
and Korea. As both a scholar and a soldier, he combined the exacting 
rigor of the former with the tenacity of the latter to attack, often 
singlehandedly, the bastions of irrationality.
  We honor his life and mourn his passing.
  Mr. President, I ask that the obituary from the Washington Post of 
February 2 be printed in the Record.
  The obiturary follows:

                [From the Washington Post, Feb. 2, 1997]

              Wilcomb Washburn, Smithsonian Official, Dies

       Wilcomb Edward Washburn, 72 a retired American studies 
     program director of the Smithsonian Institution, past 
     president of what is now the Historical Society of Washington 
     and teacher of history at three area universities, died of 
     prostate cancer Feb. 1 at his home in Washington. He also had 
     a home in Princess Anne, Md.
       He came to Washington and joined the Smithsonian in 1958 as 
     acting curator of its political history division. From 1965 
     to 1968, he was chairman of the American studies department 
     of the National Museum of History and Technology, now the 
     National Museum

[[Page S1685]]

     of American History. In 1968, he became the Smithsonian's 
     American studies program director, a post he held until 
     retiring on Jan. 1, 1997.
       He was president of the Historical Society of Washington 
     from 1976 to 1980. He was a past national president of the 
     American Society for Ethnohistory, the American Studies 
     Association and the Society for the History of Discoveries. 
     He had been an advisory editor of ``Terrae Incognitae,'' the 
     annals of the Society of American Historians, and had served 
     on the commandant's advisory committee on Marine Corps 
     history.
       Over the years, while working for the Smithsonian, he had 
     taught at the University of Maryland and at George Washington 
     and American universities. He also wrote six books on 
     subjects such as Colonial history, anthropology, architecture 
     and museums.
       He was the recipient of three honorary degrees as well as 
     the National Association of Scholars' Sidney Hook Memorial 
     Award.
       Dr. Washburn was born in Kansas and raised in New 
     Hampshire. He was a 1948 summa cum laude graduate of 
     Dartmouth College, where he also was elected to Phi Beta 
     kappa. He received his doctorate in the history of American 
     civilization from Harvard University.
       He served with the Marine Corps as a Japanese language 
     officer in World War II and served on active duty again 
     during the Korean War. He retired from the reserve as a 
     colonel.
       Before coming to Washington, he had been an information and 
     education officer with the military government in Japan and 
     spent a year as a teaching fellow in history and literature 
     at Harvard.
       From 1955 to 1958, he served on the history faculty of the 
     College of William and Mary.
       His marriage to Lelia Kanavarioti Washington ended in 
     divorce.
       Survivors include his wife, Katheryn Cousins Washburn, of 
     Washington and Princess Anne; a son from his first marriage, 
     Alexandros E., of New York; a brother, John, of Baltimore; 
     and two granddaughters.

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