Phillips Talbot, Witness to History

Phillips Talbot (1915-2010) was president of the Asia Society from 1970 to 1981. Here he stands in front of the Society's Park Avenue headquarters in New York City in 1981. (Dan Sterbling/Asia Society)

Aligarh, India, 1939: 24-year-old Talbot arrives in India on a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs, a small New York City foundation determined to increase American knowledge of "non-Western peoples.' (Phillips Talbot)

Talbot (behind car) with Indian Civil Service probationers on a Sunday holiday outside London, on November 6, 1938. L to R: Yog K. Puri, Ian Arnold, and Kesho Ram. Puri became India's ambassador to four countries, Arnold became Home Secretary for the Government of Bengal in British India, and Ram became Private Secretary to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. (Phillips Talbot)

Talbot's reports from a small Muslim community in Kashmir in 1940 were a critical part of his reporting. Shown here interviewing Kashmiri villagers, he had the great advantage of having learned Urdu in London before he reached India. (Phillips Talbot)

Talbot interviewing villagers in Kashmir in 1940. In the words of the Indian historian B.R. Nanda, "Talbot was able to deftly combine the roles of scholar, diarist, and journalist." (Phillips Talbot)

Street scene at the All-India Congress Committee (A.I.C.C.) meeting in Bombay on August 7, 1942. Talbot was a close student of the A.I.C.C. and the Muslim League in the years leading up to Independence. (Phillips Talbot)

Mahatma Gandhi arrives at the A.I.C.C. meeting in Bombay on August 7, 1942. Talbot described Gandhi as "the most efficient worker in India," with "the knack of resting his body completely while his mind carries on." (Phillips Talbot)

The Kennedy administration invited Talbot to become Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs in 1961. Here he and US Secretary of State Dean Rusk (C) listen to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (R) in May 1963. (James Burke/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Indira Gandhi (far left), US Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith (white suit, 5th from left) and wife, Dean Rusk and wife (center), and Phillips Talbot (2nd from right) visiting Raj Ghat, the memorial marking Gandhi's cremation place, in May 1963. (James Burke/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

June 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson (R) and Phillips Talbot (L) welcome new Iranian Ambassador Khosro Khosravani (C) to the White House. Talbot would become America's Ambassador to Greece from 1965 to 1969. (Francis Miller/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

L to R: Asia Society Chairman George Ball, Blanchette Rockefeller (Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd), and Talbot (R) at the groundbreaking for Asia Society's current Park Avenue headquarters in 1981. (Asia Society)

Talbot remained an active presence at Asia Society events until the very end of his life. Here he poses with Asia Society President Vishakha N. Desai at Asia Society's 16th Asian Corporate Conference in Mumbai in March 2006. (Elizabeth Lancaster/Asia Society)

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NEW YORK, October 4, 2010 - Asia Society is mourning the passing of Phillips Talbot, its former President and a groundbreaking American observer of Asian affairs.

"Phil was a statesman, a great leader and a thoughtful observer of US-Asia relations. We will miss his wisdom and commitment," said Asia Society President Vishakha N. Desai.

Ambassador Talbot died in New York on October 1 at the age of 95. Born on June 7, 1915, he pursued a long and distinguished academic and diplomatic career.

He served as US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations from 1961 to 1965.

He also was Ambassador to Greece from 1965 to 1969.

Ambassador Talbot served as President of Asia Society from 1970 to 1981 and wrote extensively about the region in books and journals over many decades.

India awarded him the prestigious Padma Shri award in 2002 in recognition of his efforts to build understanding between that country and the United States.

His love and understanding of Asia began in 1939, when he first traveled to India on a student fellowship.

During World War II he served in India and China as a US Naval liaison officer and attaché.

After the war, he reported from the subcontinent as a correspondent for the Chicago Daily News and witnessed Indian independence from British rule and partition from Pakistan in 1947. He also wrote about fledging independence movements in Southeast Asia.

During the 1950s he returned to academia in the United States and directed an inter-university program devoted to the study of the developing countries as they emerged from colonialism. It was at that time that he played an important role as an advisor at the time of the founding of Asia Society in 1956 under the patronage of John D. Rockefeller 3rd.

"Phil Talbot was an early American pioneer in the field of Asian Studies," Dr. Desai said.

"Traveling the length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent in the 1930s, he experienced first-hand the power of Gandhi's non-violent independence movement.

"He was one of the very few Americans present at the formation of independent Pakistan and India in 1947.

"As President of the Asia Society, Ambassador Talbot oversaw the expansion of the institution's New York headquarters and its move to its present location on Park Avenue in 1981.

"He remained engaged with the activities of the Society until his last days."

His wife Mildred and son Bruce preceded him in death. He is survived by his daughters, Nancy Talbot and Susan Talbot Jacox, and a grandson, David Franklin Jacox.

A memorial service will be held at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church on October 15 at 6:00 pm. A reception will follow.

Related Links:
Phillips Talbot, witness to history in India and Pakistan, dies at 95 - The Washington Post, October 6, 2010
Phillips Talbot, U.S. Envoy in Cold War, Dies at 95 - The New York Times, October 7, 2010
An American Witness to India's Partition - website accompanying Phillips Talbot's 2007 book