Donald W. Klopf | |
---|---|
Born | Donald William Klopf January 22, 1923 Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
Died | August 27, 2010 Honolulu, Hawaii | (aged 87)
Occupation | Professor, Researcher, Educator, Debate Coach |
Language | English |
Education | B.A., University of Hawaii M.A., University of Hawaii Ph.D., University of Washington |
Alma mater | University of Washington, University of Hawaii |
Subject | Debate, Public Speaking, Rhetoric, Intercultural Communication, Interpersonal Communication |
Notable works | Intercultural Encounters, Personal and Public Speaking |
Donald W. Klopf (January 22, 1923 - August 27, 2010[1]) was an eminent American intercultural communication researcher and speech communication educator. He was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Speech at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and in the Department of Communication Studies at West Virginia University. He was nationally and internationally known as the father of communication studies in the Pacific-Asian region.[2]
Klopf was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and an Army Air Force veteran. He received his B.A. in 1953 and M.A. in 1955, both in Speech from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and his Ph.D. in Speech from the University of Washington in 1958.[3] He completed his postdoctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin and Northwestern University.
Klopf joined the faculty of UH-Manoa in 1958. He was Chair of the Department of Speech, Director of Forensics, and Director of Courses and Curricula for the Continuing Education College. He retired from UH-Manoa in 1982. He then taught at West Virginia University from 1982 to 1992, where he served as Associate Chair of the Department of Communication Studies.[4]
Klopf authored more than 40 books and over 200 articles on debate and argumentation, interpersonal/small group communication, and cross-cultural/intercultural communication. He was President of the Pacific Speech Association and Founding Presidents of the Communication Association of the Pacific (CAP), the World Communication Association (WCA), and the Pacific and Asian Communication Association (PACA). He played a key role in bringing together researchers and educators around the world for communication studies in the global context.[5][6][7]
J. Jeffery Auer, who served as President of the WCA for 1985-1991, attested: "Don Klopf’s genius lay not only in teaching and scholarship, but also in his organizational skills, in accomplishing goals for his associations through astute moves, such as accepting early on that individual teachers in the Pacific countries would be most easily attracted to a regional association and attend their conventions through membership in their own national associations."[8]
Klopf collaborated with leading Asian communication scholars such as Satoshi Ishii at Dokkyo University and Takehide Kawashima at Nihon University in Japan (Presidents of the Communication Association of Japan) and Myung-Seok Park at Dankook University in South Korea (President of the Communication Association of Korea) from the 1970s to 1990s and conducted countless cross-national comparative studies of communication practices.[9] Their research findings have been cited in numerous scholarly books and journal articles across disciplines. They also appeared in The Hawaii Times, The Japan Times, and The Korea Times.[10][11]
Klopf passed away at his home in Kailua, Hawaii.[12] The special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research (JICR) on “Asia-Pacific Communication” (Vol. 39, No. 3, November 2010) was dedicated to him in honor of his lifetime contributions to international and intercultural relations in the Pacific-Asian region. Jerry L. Allen, then Editor-in-Chief, gratefully acknowledged Klopf's foresight and vision for the WCA's journal, World Communication, which was later renamed as the JICR.[13]
Myung-Seok Park remarked at the 9th Biennial Convention of the Pacific and Asian Communication Association in Seoul, South Korea, on July 6-9, 2012: "Don's lifelong efforts and devotion to the society as well as his untiring zeal and consuming curiosity in studying intercultural communication made a most striking impression upon us. We will forever miss his commitment to the society and his academic presence. We were also lucky and grateful to have had such a precious and faithful friend in Don. We will surely cherish the dear memories of him for a long time deep in our hearts.”[14]