|
Robert Furey
Chris Hagy sent me the following:
Bob - I received a card this Christmas from Takayuki Kimura’s wife advising of Tak’s passing last August following a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Tak graduated with us but I don’t think he joined us until our sophomore or junior years. He lived all over the world as a member of the Japanese diplomatic corps - including several years in Atlanta as counsel general for the southeastern US. Could you advise whomever at the college keeps track of such things. Stay well, stay happy.
Gay Mayer also sent his memories of Tak:
Tak and I ( and Mary) must have played bridge together for 100’s of hours between junior and senior year. Turns out he already had a degree from his university in Japan and was at Williams to get exposure to the US in preparation for his career. My guess is that he was at least 3 years older than the rest of us in the fraternity.
|
Gay Mayer (Mayer)
And from Tak a few years ago:
The picture I am sending to you was taken last month and shows in the following order from the left: My wife Kazuko, myself, daughter Ayako, grand-daughter Akari, son-in-law Robin O’Connor. Missing from the picture is son Yoshiyuki, now stationed in the Middle-East as JGC company representative.
I wish to thank you all for extending me help and friendship during and after the Williams years. After the graduation in 1964, I was first placed at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. as a secretary and aid to the Ambassador to the US. It was a start of my long career in the Japanese Foreign Service.
In the US, I later served as Consul-General of Japan in Atlanta, GA, where we enjoyed close personal contacts with Chris and Mary Hagy, who lived walking distance from our residence and were always willing to help us, whenever we got lost in the heavy Southern atmosphere.
After this I returned to Washington and served as Ambassador and Deputy Head of Embassy to the U. S. at the time of the Gulf War. My personal contribution to the US-Japan relations in that difficult period was well acknowledged by Williams awarding me an Honorary LLD.
Besides the US, I have served in Thailand, Paris (Delegation to OECD), Malaysia, London (Visiting fellow at Chatham House), Jordan (Ambassador) as well as some home postings with increasing responsibilities. My last posting based outside Japan was Ambassador to the European Union in Brussels, and last posting based in Japan was Roving Ambassador in charge of Global Environment Negotiations.
After our usual retirement year of 2002, I still served as Ambassador and Special Advisor to the Foreign Minister and accepted very enjoyable jobs of Visiting Professor to the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and visiting professors of two universities in Tokyo.
Now I am in full retirement, due to my health reasons. But looking back, I appreciated and enjoyed my family life the most. Kazuko accompanied me all my foreign postings up to Florence, and is still taking care of me, besides running an art gallery in Tokyo. Kids are now away from us. But with frequent visits, mail and telephone, we are still sharing the same memory of our family’s first two decades, accepting short notice order of move, and hopping to schools in totally different environments for often less than 2 years interval and ending up with many good memories.
Truly, yours
Tak Kimura