Robert Immerman, WEAI senior research scholar and director of the Professional Fellows program, passes away
The Weatherhead East Asian Institute mourns the passing of a beloved member of our community. Robert “Bob” Immerman, who joined the Institute in 1990 as senior research scholar after a distinguished 34-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service spent mainly in Tokyo and at the United Nations, died quietly in the early hours of July 22 following an accident that led to cardiac arrest and coma during a visit to his brother in California.
“We will all miss him and the large space in our lives he filled. At the end he just stopped breathing and was in no pain,” his brother Bill and sister-in-law Ginger Perkins said in a statement.
Mr. Immerman co-founded and, until his passing, directed the Institute’s Professional Fellows Program, whereby mid-career professionals in government, business, and the media in East Asia spend one or two semesters at Columbia conducting their own research, honing their professional skills in Columbia’s rich academic environment, and are generally encouraged to exchange ideas with members of the Columbia’s scholarly community.
For ten years Mr. Immerman directed a joint U.S.-Japan research project based at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, examining prospects for improving the UN system. Scholars and former officials from both countries not only met periodically in New York and Tokyo, but also traveled to international “hot spots” such as Burma, Mozambique, and East Timor to examine UN-funded operations. The group’s recommendations were forwarded periodically to officials at the two governments as well as to UN officials.
One of the most active members of the Institute, Mr. Immerman also directed Institute’s Lunchtime Lecture Series and served as advisor to the student-run Japan Studies Student Association (JASSA/NBK).
In lieu of flowers, Bill and Ginger have requested that donations be made to Central Park Conservancy or the Weatherhead East Asian Institute instead.
Central Park Conservancy
14 East 60th St
New York, NY 10022
Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Columbia University
9th Floor IAB
420 West 118th St
New York, NY 10027
*Please make checks payable to Columbia University.
Furthermore, Bill and Ginger urge everyone to “honor Bob with a toast of a gin and tonic or a nice glass of their favorite wine to a man who loved new adventures, good friends, a bird's song, all things Japanese and a night out at a good restaurant followed by the theatre, opera or ballet.”
