Faculty to Establish Fund In Honor of Asia Scholar

A group of Faculty members has established a fund in the memory of the late Joseph F. Fletcher. Jr '57. Professor of Chinese and Central Asian History.

The committee will formally begin the fund-raising process for the Joseph Fletcher Fund for Inner Asian Studies at an afternoon service today at Memorial Church.

The fund's purpose is to further Hatchet's work in inner Asian Studies and to increase public understanding of the subject, John K. Fairbank, Higginson professor of History, Emeritus, and chairman of the committee said yesterday.

The idea for the fund "spontaneously generated" after Fletcher's death in June, said Fairbank. He and seven other faculty members, mostly from the East Asian Studies Department-including former Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky, Barker Professor, of Economics formed a temporary committee to begin the long process of raising money.

Speakers at the memorial service will include Francis W. Cleaves, professor of Far Eastern Studies emeritus, who will speak of Fietcher's achievements in mastering an extraordinary number of Asian languages in the course of his research, and Fairbank, who will emphasize Fletcher's groundbreaking work in Asian history.

Fletcher was also popular among students and won the Undergraduate Council's Joseph R. Levenson award for excellence in leaching. "He was devoted to students, he really did everything for them," said Fairbank, who expected many of Fletcher's pupils to appear at the service.