Passing of Charles "Biff" Keyes
From: michele thompson <thompson.michele@sbcglobal.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 5, 2022 9:35 AM
To: Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; VietnamStudies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>; John Amos Marston <jmars@colmex.mx>; Vicente L. Rafael <vrafael@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] passing of Charles "Biff" Keyes
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I found this news very sad even though I had been expecting it for several days. Even though I was not Biff's advisee he touched my academic career and my personal life in many ways. I took a class with him my very first semester in the Ph.D. program at UW and that class strongly influenced my decision to move from a Ph.D primarily on East Asia to one on Southeast Asia. Biff was a member of my dissertation committee and he offered me good advice on many occasions during my whole time at UW.
On a more personal note, I well remember wonderful parties at his and Jane’s home with not only all of “his” graduate students but with basically any grad student from any department who was working on any subject connected to Southeast Asia. Biff also added immeasurably to my first experience of Vietnam when I arrived the day before Tet in January of 1993 on the last flight into the airport from Hong Kong and I was allowed to tag along with Biff and the rest of a small delegation from UW who were there to make institutional connections as I was starting my field work. During the days of celebration of Tet that year two memories of Biff really stand out in my mind. In one the two of us shared a cyclo at night on streets filled with hundreds, thousands, of people on bicycles streaming past the old Hoa Binh Hotel which was lit up with ‘peace’ spelled out in at least 5 languages. I don’t remember where we were coming from or going to but the ride itself was magical. The second memory concerns both of us burning incense at a small Buddhist temple in the old quarter. It was one of the few open at the time and it was filled with offerings of fruit and flowers and foods of all sorts and Biff was visibly delighted to be there.
In my last communication with Biff, emails last Wednesday and Thursday, I told him that I hoped we would be able to meet in the next life and I retain that hope.
I am grateful to have known him and to have shared so many indelible experiences with him.
Michele
C. Michele Thompson
Professor of Southeast Asian History
thompsonc2@southernct.edu
From: Minh Bui Jones <mekongreview@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 5, 2022 1:51 AM
To: Margaret B. Bodemer <mbodemer@calpoly.edu>
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu; Oscar Salemink <o.salemink@anthro.ku.dk>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] passing of Charles "Biff" Keyes
Dear all,
For your interest, we made Martin Stuart-Fox's review of Charles Keyes's Impermanence: An Anthropologist of Thailand and Asia, published in May 2020, free to read today. Please follow the link here https://mekongreview.com/scholar-and-believer/
Warm regards, Minh
From: Margaret B. Bodemer <mbodemer@calpoly.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 12:13 PM
To: vsg@u.washington.edu; Diane Fox <dnfox70@gmail.com>; Hue-Tam Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>
Cc: Oscar Salemink <o.salemink@anthro.ku.dk>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] passing of Charles "Biff" Keyes
Dear Colleagues,
An enormous loss, both to our profession and for those who knew him. And most especially his family.
As an undergraduate at UW, I really appreciated Dr. Keyes classes on Buddhism and Society, Southeast Asia and more. He was an amazing lecturer, a kind person and became a generous mentor to me (and many others!).
A quick anecdote: In one of his upper division courses, I remember one day when he stopped mid lecture and said, rather frustratedly - "Why don't you guys have questions for me?" and I recall most of us were surprised. Someone spoke up and said: "You know everything about the topic and we know nothing - what could we ask you!?" He seemed a bit chagrined at that, but honestly most of us UGs were just in awe of him. His stories were legendary and I loved listening to him talk! I credit him and his classes with further stimulating my interests in Vietnam and Asia as well as anthropology. When I left UW to go to graduate school, I had a few opportunities to meet him again and he was always so kind and caring.
Many condolences,
Maggie
Margaret Barnhill Bodemer, Ph.D.
Pronouns: she/her/hers (Why pronouns matter)
Lecturer, History Department and Asian Studies Minor
Vietnamese Language and Culture Roundtable
Cal Poly Global Program in Hanoi
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
From: Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 12:04 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>; Vicente L. Rafael <vrafael@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] passing of Charles "Biff" Keyes
VSG friends and colleagues,
UW's Southeast Asia Center community woke up this morning to this most somber news and we are greatly saddened. Biff's foundational role over decades in building SEAC as an institution, in making UW a preeminent destination for students seeking training in Southeast Asian Studies, and in tirelessly and generously promoting Thai and Viet Nam Studies and Southeast Asian Studies more generally, from the highest perches of our profession to the smallest, most personal gestures of mentoring, caring and connecting, is too immense to capture in a few sentences here. We all are deeply in his debt. For now, let me simply share his family's message. In it you will find a link to a memorial book awaiting remembrances.
In gratitude,
Christoph
C. Giebel
International Studies & History, UW-Seattle
The message from Biff's family:
----
Dear friends,
It is with heavy hearts that we are writing to let you know of the passing of Charles “Biff” Keyes – husband, father, friend, teacher and mentor.
Biff passed away peacefully earlier today, surrounded by his family, at his apartment in Portland. In his final days his spirits were lifted by the outpouring of love and support he received from friends and family near and far. He remarked often that he had had a wonderful and very full life. He was 84.
We know that Biff will be mourned by friends and colleagues all over the world, and particularly in Seattle, where he taught at the University of Washington for 45 years, and in Thailand, where he lived and worked for many years.
An in-person celebration of Biff’s life will be held this Saturday January 8 at the Riverview Chapel in Portland. Unfortunately, because of COVID concerns, this will be a very small gathering. We would encourage anyone who would like to leave remembrances to do so at the Riverview memorial book dedicated to Biff’s life: https://www.riverviewcemeteryfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Charles-F-Keyes?obId=23551093#/obituaryInfo
We will be in touch as other memorials or remembrances are organized.
Donations in Biff’s memory can be made to two funds at the University of Washington: the Southeast Asian Center Discretionary Fund at the Jackson School of International Studies:
https://www.washington.edu/giving/make-a-gift/?page=funds&source_typ=2&source=ECM
or the Charles and Jane Keyes Endowed Book Fund on Southeast Asia:
https://www.washington.edu/giving/make-a-gift/?source_typ=2&source=EJB
Donations can also be given to the ALS Association. As many of you know, Biff suffered through a long struggle with ALS, and the Association has provided much-needed support to him over the past few years.
We want to thank all of you for your support and help, and for reaching out and being there for Biff as his health declined. It has meant so much to him, and to us.
With deep appreciation,
The Keyes family - Jane, Jon, and Nick
From: Thaveeporn Vasavakul <Thaveeporn@kvsnetworksystem.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 12:01 PM
To: Vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: [Vsg] Charles Keyes (1937-2022)
I have heard that Prof. Charles Keyes passed away. In addition to working on Thailand and Laos, he was also very active in promoting scholarship on Vietnam.
Thaveeporn Vasavakul, Ph.D
GoSFI
From: Diane Fox <dnfox70@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 9:37 AM
To: Hue-Tam Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu; Oscar Salemink <o.salemink@anthro.ku.dk>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] passing of Charles "Biff" Keyes
Dear Oscar--
Thank you so much for telling us of your last conversation with Biff. Though still a blow, as Hue-Tam says, it is comforting to hear that he saw his life as wonderful and fulfilling, His death is a loss for so many of us. As a former student of his, I can also say that his life and his mentoring were gifts. I join friends and colleagues on this list in honoring his life, and in sadness.
Diane
(Diane Fox, PhD anthropology
retired, writing
California)
From: Hy Luong <vanluong@chass.utoronto.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 5:24 AM
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] passing of Charles "Biff" Keyes
The passing of Biff Keyes is very sad news.
I first met Biff in the 1970s when he was a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard during one of his sabbaticals. I got to know him much better when we served on a few SSRC committees together in the late 1980s and in the 1990s. Biff deeply cared about Southeast Asian studies and the training of scholars from Asia, including Vietnam.
Hy
Hy V. Luong
Anthropology, University of Toronto
From: Hue-Tam Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 4:10 AM
To: Oscar Salemink <o.salemink@anthro.ku.dk>
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] passing of Charles "Biff" Keyes
That is a very sad news indeed. On top of another sad news, the passing of Tran Quang Hai.
I got to know Biff in the 1980s through our work on the SSRC Southeast Asia committee. Biff and Jim Scott had launched a subcommittee to preserve the study of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Biff did a lot to train young Vietnamese anthropologists such as Hoang Cam, Duong Bich Hanh and several others. I had known of his long illness, but Biff's death still registers as a blow.
Hue Tam Ho Tai
Harvard University emerita
From: Oscar Salemink <o.salemink@anthro.ku.dk>
Sent: Tuesday, January 4, 2022 3:44 AM
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: [Vsg] passing of Charles "Biff" Keyes
Dear VSG members,
It is with great sadness that I relate the passing yesterday, January 3rd, of Charles F. Keyes. He died peacefully after a long battle with ALS in the presence of his wife Jane, his sons Nick and Jon, and their families.
Biff, as he liked to be called, was a professor of anthropology and international studies at the University of Washington in Seattle until his retirement (2006, although he remained active after that), and focused his research mostly on Thailand and mainland Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. Over the decades, Biff published 15 books, monographs or special issues of journals and published over 90 articles. He was a giant in the fields of anthropology and (Southeast) Asian studies, a status that was capped by his presidency of the Association of Asian Studies in 2002. Biff prided himself in his work as a mentor and PhD supervisor to dozens of junior scholars, many of whom hailed from the Southeast Asia region, in particular Thailand and Vietnam. In this and other capacities, he was an incredibly generous scholar who took the teaching and mentoring aspect of scholarship extremely seriously. Many members of the Thailand-Laos-Cambodia (TLC) and Vietnam Studies Group (VSG) networks of the AAS have some connection with him, but in Thailand he enjoyed an outsize status as an ajarn to many local scholars as well. But he also supervised many PhD theses on Vietnam, including by scholars from Vietnam many of whom went on to pursue stellar careers within Vietnam.
Many of his students contributed to a festschrift in his honor titled Ethnicity, Borders, and the Grassroots Interface with the State: Studies on Southeast Asia in Honor of Charles F. Keyes (2014, see https://silkwormbooks.com/products/ethnicity-borders), and Biff himself published his professional autobiography under the rather Buddhist title Impermanence: An Anthropologist of Thailand and Asia (2020, see https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9786162151385/impermanence/).
I had the good fortune of getting to know him and his lovely wife Jane – herself a scholar of Vietnam – through our collaborations in the 1990s, which turned into friendship over the years. Unfortunately we could not meet during the last years, but we corresponded and occasionally called, the last time just before Christmas. He knew that he was going to die but mentioned that he had had a wonderful and fulfilling life. I know that Biff received messages of love and support from friends and colleagues and that he will be missed and mourned by many around the world.
Those who like to share a memory can do so here https://www.riverviewcemeteryfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Charles-F-Keyes?obId=23551093#/obituaryInfo.
Donations in Biff’s memory can be made to two funds at the University of Washington: the Southeast Asian Center Discretionary Fund at the Jackson School of International Studies (https://www.washington.edu/giving/make-a-gift/?page=funds&source_typ=2&source=ECM) or the Charles and Jane Keyes Endowed Book Fund on Southeast Asia (https://www.washington.edu/giving/make-a-gift/?source_typ=2&source=EJB). Alternatively, donations can be given to the ALS Association (https://www.als.org/donate).
Kind regards,
Oscar Salemink
Professor
University of Copenhagen
Department of Anthropology
Øster Farimagsgade 5, Entrance E, office 16.0.24
1353 Copenhagen K
Denmark
TEL +45 33 32 34 64
DIR +45 35 32 44 72
o.salemink@anthro.ku.dk