Traveled to remote villages of Mexico to observe local religious customs
Dr. Paul J. Vanderwood started his career covering Martin Luther King Jr. and Elvis Presley as an investigative journalist and went on to become a leading scholar in Latin American History at San Diego State University, where he taught Mexican History for 25 years, gaining an international reputation.
He went into the remote villages of Mexico to observe local religious customs and brought back insights that distinguished him in the academic world and captured the interest of the general public. As a professor, he was as excited about sharing his research as mentoring students. Both his books and his teaching won awards.
“He was a great historian and a people person,” said longtime friend George Sherman.
Dr. Vanderwood died of bowel cancer Oct. 10 at San Diego Hospice in Hillcrest. He was 82.
“He communicated excitement about his work across generations to new Ph. Ds as well as leading figures in the field,” said his friend Dr. Gilbert Joseph, Farnam Professor of History and International Studies at Yale University.
Even into his 80s, Dr. Vanderwood traveled to Yale to present lectures in Latin American history. “He was generous intellectually and personally and had an impact on students from San Diego universities to Yale,” Joseph said.
Dr. Vanderwood was among those who pioneered the teaching of history through film and used his journalistic background to bring immediacy and vividness to his books on Mexican cultural history, some of which are widely used in colleges. Among his most acclaimed works were “Disorder and Progress: Bandits, Police, and Mexican Development” about the changing face of banditry in 19th century Mexico and “The Power of God Against the Guns of Government,” about government suppression of a religious rebellion in Mexico.
He was known for trying to bring meaning from his research to a wider audience outside academia, particularly in the area of religious beliefs.
“In later works he focused on popular religious feeling—not so much formal, institutional religion, as people’s personal beliefs, making an effort to get inside the heads of the historical actors,” said colleague Dr. Eric Van Young, distinguished professor of history at the University of California, San Diego.
Among his many awards, Dr. Vanderwood will receive posthumously the 2011 Distinguished Service Award of the Conference on Latin American History.
He began his career covering the Civil Rights movement for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain in Memphis, TN after graduating from Bethany College in 1950 with a major in journalism and history. As he interviewed history professors at Memphis University, he was encouraged to pursue a master’s degree in history there, which he received in 1957.
During the Korean War, he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army from 1951-53 in the Psychological Warfare School, focusing on ways to train troops to resist brainwashing.
In the early 1960s, he was among a team of investigative reporters sent to South America to examine difficulties the Peace Corps had in retaining volunteers. He became fascinated with Latin American culture, which led him to study the subject at the University of Texas-Austin, where he focused on Mexican history and received a Ph.D in 1969. He joined the faculty at San Diego State, where he was close to the Mexican border.
“He was a bit of an explorer and went out into remote Mexican villages to observe spiritual life and local traditions,” said Dr. Joanne Ferraro, chair of the history department at San Diego State.
He lived in La Mesa for more than 40 years and was known as a scholar and mentor—giving his time not only to his students, but anyone who asked for his help. “He could talk to anyone about anything,” Van Young said,
He was born June 3, 1929 in Brooklyn, NY to Mildred Horstman, a star teenage ballet dancer and Joseph Vanderwood, a cigar manufacturer. He is survived by his sister Pam Stiff of Deland, Fl.
No services. A private gathering is planned.
A Paul Vanderwood Memorial Fund is in the process of being established for a scholarship and proposed research center in his name at San Diego State University, said Sherman. For information, e-mail George Sherman Geosherman@aol.com.
', prototype.renderSponsoredEvents.apply(this, arguments), '', '
' ].join(''); }, renderDateLine: function(event) { return [ '
' ].join(''); } }, css: { "#z_event_list_layout_1_1": "margin: -10px 0 0 0;", "#z_event_list .z-image": "height:45px; margin-right: 10px; width: 45px;", "#z_event_list h3": "background: none; border: 0; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0; padding: 0;", "#z_event_list .z-dateline": "color: #6a6a6a; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 14px;", "#z_event_list .z-venueline": "color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;", "#z_event_list li": "background: none; padding-left: 0;", "#z_event_list .z-sponsored-block": "background-color: #e3e2d5; position: relative; padding:5px; margin: 0;", "#z_event_list .z-sponsored-block .z-eventinfo": "width: 210px;", "#z_event_list .z-sponsored-label": "position:relative; top: 8px; left:-1px; text-align:right; font-size:9px; color:#888; height: 10px; width:298px; margin: 0; padding:0; z-index: 100;", "#z_event_list .z-eventinfo": "margin: 0; width:210px;", ".z-eventlist-layout1 .z-eventinfo": " width: 280px; margin: 0;" } }); })($ZJQuery, ZWidgets);
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment