Affinity Networks Professor Odo's Celebration of Life

- So a few months ago we received a message from one of Professor Odo's past colleagues, professor Anne Chang from Princeton University. This was her message. "Franklin Odo is a national treasure. His work and dedication have been an inspiration to so many, including me. When my home institution first started thinking about building Asian American studies, he generously came and taught courses for us, provided intellectual depth and offered much needed institutional knowledge. He is beloved by students and faculty alike." Even though Anne Chang was referencing Professor Odo's prior professorship at another university. I was struck by how much her message aligns with my own conception of Professor Odo. He was a national treasure and inspiration, providing intellectual depth and institutional knowledge, and he was beloved by students and faculty alike. Her message is a testament to Professor Odo's influence and impact, not just at Amherst College but at every institution he was ever a part of. As everyone in this room must know, Professor Odo gave 110% to whatever he was doing, because he always loved what he was doing. He cared so deeply about each and every university he taught at making sure that students, faculty, and staff were okay and hopefully thriving. We at Amherst were so lucky to have him here on our campus for the past eight years. we have benefited so much from his intellectual depth and institutional knowledge, especially as we strive to build an APA studies program here. Just as importantly, we will always remember his trademark smile and his signature laugh, which has sparked so much joy in our Amherst community. Professor Odo was always about having a good joyful time, whether during group class trips or during class dinners at his house with his wonderful family. With that in mind, today we will be hosting a celebration of life where we all share our personal stories of Professor Odo. We will start with Professor Robert Hayashi, who eight years ago was so intentional about wanting Professor Odo here on our Amherst campus. Okay, so I will pass it off to Professor Hayashi.

- Good afternoon everyone and welcome. Thank you to the staff who helped with today's celebration to the Asian Alumni Association and to all of you attendees and most of all to the Odo family. Those of you who know me from Amherst may be disoriented by my attire standing here without my signature bow tie and typically formal look. "What is Hayashi doing up there in the Aloha shirt?" you may be wondering. my clothing is of course a gesture to Franklin Odo's Hawaiian roots and sartorial style, but also represents to me his time at Amherst, how he demonstrated that if we imagine, work, and prepare in community, anything is possible. At this institution, so intimately connected with Amherst famous bard, Emily Dickinson, it is appropriate that we "Dwell in possibility," a phrase from one of her famous poems, as we reflect on Franklin Odo's impact on our community and what he made possible here as in so many other spaces. In that context, a touch of Hawaii, a Yankee Western Massachusetts becomes not improbable, but inevitable. Although trained as an Asian historian with advanced degrees from Harvard in Princeton, Franklin was inspired by the social movements of the sixties and seventies and dedicated his life to advocacy, social justice, ethnic studies, praxis and public history. He became an internationally recognized pioneering figure in Asian American studies, establishing academic and public programs from Hawaii to Washington DC, and he served in numerous leadership positions. His labor made possible the opportunities, positions, many of us now enjoy. Franklin's unique influence was due to him straddling several worlds, working for decades among activists, scholars, students, public agencies, and the general public. He made the unusual, for this audience in particular, decision to leave academe, and work at the Smithsonian Institution where he became founding director of the Smithsonian's Asian Pacific American program. In this role, he had seminal and lasting influence upon the preservation and promotion of the long ignored stories of Asian Americans, he made more visible the pain and possibility of our histories in the mix up of American life. How we have imagined, experienced and challenged this nation and its institutions transformed them to include us. And he broadcast how to negotiate its most elite spaces while keeping your roots. I first worked with Franklin for the National Park Service Asian Pacific American theme study, and as the descendant of incarcerated Japanese Americans, I never imagined working with my government to more faithfully tell this history, not when it was unmentioned in my school books and classrooms, when so many still justify this injustice. Impossible. But I was there at the table as Franklin encouraged us to be. Franklin was, excuse the sports metaphor, like a lead blocker selflessly clearing a pathway for others to rush into and he was a masterful leader. While working with him, I was struck how he used that power or rather authority not to mandate but to mediate and coordinate. He loved, as many of you know, to tell a tale, to talk story, but he was also a listener. He looked you in the eye and was like a portable gravitational field pulling you in with his gentle warmth and that lovely smile, and making anything seem possible. Franklin focused on quietly enabling others and he built networks of people across time and space and generations that have carried many of us. He tirelessly supported people and organizations without a need to ask, for he did not center himself and his efforts, but used his visibility and authority to enable something larger. At that time, after 2015, Amherst students needed such a presence, especially after the events of Amherst uprising. So many of you had begun asking questions, identifying with larger social movements and recognizing your marginality at Amherst, the larger society, and insisting on change, on being at the table. I thought Franklin Odo could help, that he would be like a tropical breeze in the sometimes chilly social climb of Massachusetts and give some here and their efforts to change Amherst, and needed a tailwind. I knew he would bring his quiet gravitas, network of connections, an Energizer Bunny effort to Amherst College, but I had no idea the level of personal and institutional impact he would have, how much he would care for all of us. He was our beloved teacher, sharp scholar, trusted colleague, generous mentor, hip alternative grandfather, emergency uber driver, gracious dinner host, carefree tour guide and steady secret sharer. I really should retire, for I will never top the idea of inviting him here and under a professorship named for an unapologetic architect of my family's incarceration, John J. McCloy. As I said, Franklin's time here reminds us what is possible, the arc of the moral universe can bend. I should be here and in this shirt, for Amherst once sent men across the Pacific emboldened by the motto, "Terras Irradient," "Let them enlighten the lands." Men who, set in motion, enabled sweeping and sometimes cataclysmic events, wars, political upheaval, mass migrations like the one that brought my family from rural Japan to a Hawaiian sugar plantation run by New England congregationalists like the men who once met in spaces like this. Now here I am, here we all are. Asia, the Pacific, has come to Amherst to stay. Franklin Odo's work made that possible and his legacy will continue to shape Amherst College. He incited in us hope, some aspiration, possibility, to be seen, to organize and shape a better Amherst College, to, if needed, get into a little good trouble along the way. And look now, you have a weekend. Amherst College has many new Asian faculty, including several specialists and APA studies such as Professors Dhingra, Bolton, and Peralta and others. The college has hired more specialists in the field who will now join the faculty. Your alumni organization is thriving, our students and the school, thanks especially to Tony Chan. are regular fixtures at the Association for Asian American Studies Annual Conference and are already doing impressive work in the field as undergraduates and professors as well. And this year the Asian Alumni Association will award the Franklin S. Odo prize, recognizing a senior's outstanding thesis in APA studies. It's amazing what is possible. If you had an English essay due tomorrow and for reference only of course, use one of those AI tools to help generate ideas about Emily Dickinson's famous poem on possibility. You would likely come across some claim about how the poem is a meta-commentary on poetry, a reading that hinges however on how one interprets the single word "Prose." If it only means a form of communication. But there are other possibilities, more expansive ones. Prose also can mean dull expression, or a sequence, terms that suggest a more expansive interpretation of the poem. "I dwell in possibility a fairer house than prose, more numerous of windows, superior for doors, of chambers as the cedars impregnable of eye, and for an everlasting roof, the Gambrels of the sky. Of visitors, the fairest, for occupation, this, the spreading wide, my narrow hands to gather paradise." I don't profess to know what paradise looks like or if I'll get held up at the velvet ropes. I've got my rather long list of transgressions, but I hope to catch at least a glimpse of it. And in my image I see Franklin Odo in an Aloha shirt, that inviting smile and we are all there, we are speaking whatever mix up are our tongues, and we are drinking, eating, laughing, and talking story about all that was possible. Thank you.

- Thank you Professor Hayashi. Now we will open it up to other students, alumni, faculty and staff who would like to share their memories with Professor Odo. We do request that each person keep their story to three to five minutes, just to be mindful of time. But we really look forward to, you know, hearing everyone's stories and making this a true celebration. So on that note, is there anybody who would like to go first? Or maybe I'll let you gather your bearings for a minute, and I will read a submission from an alumni who is not able to make it today. Okay, so this is from Steven Sumita class of '68. He said "In November, 2019, Franklin invited me to speak in a course at Amherst in Asian American studies. During my visit he drove me to the inn on Boltwood and told me this, he knew Princeton and Harvard from having been an undergraduate and a graduate student. And yet he found that the best educational experience for students was at Amherst. Here the students are able to realize their excellence mostly through the rigor that they themselves apply to their studies under faculty who nurture each student's potential. His praise for Amherst students and the college was at the same time an acknowledgement that this is why he spent those years late in his career as a visiting professor at Amherst College. It was his chance to fulfill his own academic potentials as a teacher." Okay, great. Now I will pass it off to Kiko.

- Hello. Gosh, it's, I've had like an idea of what I was gonna say but now I have to say it. With Jenny, I took the first class that Professor Odo taught at Amherst. It was on Hawaiian annexation and Chinese exclusion and I think there were four of us. So it was before, at that time he was somewhat undiscovered I think. And it was the first time... I brought my Kleenex 'cause I thought this might happen, but it was the first time that I felt like the class was about who we were as people, and we were invited to share our stories about what it felt like to be at Amherst but to also be, I mean it was also all women, we're all Asian women and it was such, it was just like being with friends every day. And I, with Jenny, Sho, Olivia, we're all here today. There's some of us who are not, but after we graduated, actually Sho hadn't even graduated, she's still a student. But we wanted to know what alumni could do. We wanted Asian American studies and we wanted the support, and Professor Odo was never one to tell you what to do. He wanted you to discover it yourself. And so he turned the question back to us and he said, "Well what can you do?" We didn't have money, we were really young but we had time and we had energy. So we decided we needed to connect alumni, we needed to bring people together, we needed to stay, maintain that connection with students and faculty. And we created the Asian Alumni Network, which, it seems perfect. It's the fifth year anniversary of our organization this weekend. And that's really I think one of the incredible things about Professor Odo. He was all about community, about bringing connections. Every Monday I meet with my co-founders, my people. And it's as much for us as it is for the organization. They're wonderful friends, they're wonderful people. It's wonderful to get to start the week on a Monday at 9:00 PM and have a moment to vent about, you know, things that happen. But then also to be able to put that energy into something that feels really positive. Many of the people who are biggest supporters are people that Professor Odo brought into the organization. Tony Chan, I know him from Professor Odo. Professor Smita as well. He brought people together and one of the greatest things that he, again, didn't tell me to do but led me to, I should say, is I wrote my thesis on Japanese internment. And he said, a couple times during the year he said, "You know, you should really go to Topaz, you should see what's there." And so after I graduated, my mom and I drove from San Francisco to Topaz, and Professor Odo's very involved with the museum that's being started out there and made an introduction with a director who was able to take us to, the plot of land that my grandparents had been interned in. And it was really important for me, but I think even more important to be there with my mom and to be able to dictate the terms of being there. And I think all along Professor Odo knew that that's what the experience would be, that it was important to do this. But he never said that. He never explained that, he let me arrive at that conclusion myself. And that's just an incredible gift, to have that encouragement, that steadfast encouragement and also the belief that we will lead ourselves to where we need to go. That's something that he did for so many of us, so many students and continues to do. And even now I'm thinking we are all here together again in community because of Professor Odo. And it fills me with such happiness and pride to know that in many ways he's still here with us and able to keep this community going because of his legacy. So sorry for immediately becoming emotional, but he really, he had a huge impact on me and I'm really happy to be able to share that story with you all.

- Anyone who's willing to share, even just a couple sentences, you're welcome.

- Hi, my name is Pawan Dhingra, I'm a professor here in the provost office, and Franklin, I got to know Franklin best here, although I think I've been kind of following in his, you know, far off in his footsteps for a while. I worked at the Smithsonian for a couple years and it was right after he left, so we didn't work together and I've been somewhat active in the association for Asian American Studies, which he was a former president of. And when I had the opportunity to come here five years, four and a half years ago, I remember being really surprised that Franklin was here, like it made no sense to me. Like, 'cause he is from Hawaii, and he's been all these things, and he's here and I'm like, "Amherst is doing so much more than I would've realized, 'cause Franklin's here." And so you kind of know someone from like his, not his personal reputation but from his professional accomplishments and it's, you know, he's a power, powering figure in a lot of the, you know, professional circles that we run in. And then to get to know him in the way that, you know, Robert and others have described. It was just so refreshing and humbling to know that, you know, this is how he's accomplished so much with his true self leading the way. And as Robert put much more eloquently, kind of like his way of enacting right and approaching what mattered became the way that people then understood and gravitated around and conformed to, as opposed to feeling like he had to fit into the spaces to be, you know, respected there. I can say when I was at the Smithsonian, people, he's already left, but people just spoke so highly of what he brought to it and as the inaugural director of a, you know, national center, like it's a really was a kind of a pathbreaking space that he created for that kind of, his professional intellectual gravitas plus his demeanor. They accomplished an incredible amount that they have been kind of building on since, but without ever kind of suggesting that, oh you know, we need to change direction or we need to think about this. It was really just kind of building off his work and the shoulders that they were on top of. I'll just end with one small anecdote, which is, I was walking into my office, whenever it was, a couple years ago, and I got a text from him and he said, "Call me." I'm like, oh my god, okay. So I get in my office, and like I'm actually kind of worried, I'm actually almost panicking like, what is this? And he says, "I wanna talk to you about your career." And he just wanted to talk, about, you know, whatever. And it was just, it literally took me like a couple of minutes realize this is what we're talking about, this is why he texted me, this generosity of spirit is something that you have to witness to really fully appreciate. So thank you for putting this together and yeah, his impact... One last thing I'll say is that we were at the Asian American Studies conference this month, and we had a reception that Tony helped support and it was in honor of Franklin and so Davidson was there, and one of the things that was said was we wanted to thank his family for letting Franklin be a father figure for us. And then when I talked to Dave afterwards, he's like, "Oh, if you only knew the real stories of Franklin, you wouldn't be so glowing." So, which reminds me that when he was at a event here that students put on, I think Robert you said that if you go back in college you would've studied more, and then Franklin said "I would've drank less."

- Is there anyone who would like to go next?

- Hi. Oh wow, this is so weird. Hi, my name is Hibiscus, I use he/him pronouns, and I'm a current sophomore at Amherst. I'm a history major for now. And yeah, I read up this little speech before coming here. I got like super tear-eyed while I was like creating this. So forgive me if I'm a little bit emotional, but coming into college I knew for a fact that I wanted to be an Asian-American studies scholar. I was fortunate enough to have come from a community of queer Asian Americans who introduced me to the Yellow Power Movement and showed me how to organize in the years prior to college. I wanted to carry that energy with me into college and the only way that felt right for me was to pursue that energy through Asian American studies. It was only after I committed to Amherst and started searching for an AAPI major that doesn't actually exist, when I learned about Franklin and his immense ties to the Asian American Liberation Movement, I was astounded, mainly 'cause what did he see in western Massachusetts of all places that was supposedly so great it drew him out of retirement? But I was also in awe that a man like him who was alive to witness and even pioneered the rise of the yellow power movement was still here with us and was just within reach. During my freshman spring I finally got the courage to ask him to be my Schupf research mentor for the summer. Up until then, I had never said a word to him. I had never even seen him in person for all that matters. He was just a sort of urban legend in my mind. Someone who I had heard about from time to time for months but didn't really know. I spent an hour trying to type up one of probably the longest emails I've ever had to send in my entire Amherst career, introducing myself and begging for him to be my mentor. And all he sent back was just a few sentences, "Okay, let's talk over Zoom." He'd even wait to hear my idea before he wholeheartedly agreed to be my mentor. I'll always, always remember the first time I met him over Zoom to talk about my research proposal. When I told him about my idea for a public humanities project, he was silent for a few seconds before he said, "Well I didn't know that there are so young revolutionaries like you who exists." He told me that my energy was contagious and that it reminded him of the students that he mentored back when he was teaching at, sorry, forgive me. Back when he was teaching at UCLA and Occidental College and when he first got involved in the fight for Asian American studies the whole time he was smiling. And to this day I still think about that conversation we had and since then we were able to work together for a few short months after I first reached out to him in March, and until the end of the semester. And then throughout the summer. That first zoom meeting we had set the precedent for how I eventually came to know him through the screen. I was never able to meet him in person nor was I ever able to take a class with him. But even just talking to him over the phone over these few months was more than enough to like change the entire trajectory of my life. And there are so many things that I can say about what I love about Odo. His love was contagious, even over Zoom, he was remarkably humble about his work, he knew all of the organizers and movement spaces that I've looked up to for years. Everyone from the people who were involved with the making of Magazine, to the organizers in the Manhattan Chinatown who were fighting for the liberation of their community. And he put in all the work to help me finally get to meet my heroes. He was kind and sweet and caring and gentle and genuine and patient. But what I admire most about him was his unwavering political commitment to his community. He was a dedicated Marxist revolutionary who helped shape the yellow power movement of the sixties and seventies. A movement that derived its geological base from Marxist revolutionaries in Asia. And he made sure not to let me or anyone else forget that. He was a pioneer of the fight for AAPI studies and more broadly speaking ethnic studies across the university of campuses which have roots in anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, and third-world Marxism. And his love for his students, his love for his teaching and his own work can never ever be divorced from the sheer love he had for the political spaces that he cared so deeply about. Everything he did, all of the relationships he's formed and all the classes he's taught was in the name of the collective good and above all else, he cared about his own community and the revolutionary potential of the future. And even after only getting to know him over the course of a few months, I can say that he by far had the most genuine love for his own community out of anyone I've ever known. And that's something that will always stay by me. And him staying true to his own politics and his dedication to his community, he taught me so, so much. He helped me remember why I came to college in the first place, which was always so that I could help siphon institutional resources and knowledge back into the communities I care about. He gave me the resources I needed to build an academic home for myself in the Asian American studies. He taught me how to find my own place at an academic institution that I vehemently hate and to never forget what keeps me tied to this place. He encouraged me to to forge my own path and to do what is always right no matter how impossible or unconventional it may seem. He taught me that yes, academia is a bitch to deal with sometimes, but there are ways of surviving and living and finding liberation within other people to make it all the worthwhile. And at a time where I had lost almost all hope for academia and was very seriously considering dropping out of college, he helped me realize that even if liberation can't be found within academia, I can still find ways to make it work for me and help my own people. And he helped me cope with my growing disillusionment with Amherst and opt out of the toxic individualism that this institution has so deeply embedded within our community. And he put so much faith in the old me and this confused, naive 18 year old Asian boy that didn't know anything about the world to keep the yellow power movement alive, and to continue fighting for change. And as professors like him who have kept me here at Amherst and give me hope for the future, one that is libratory and relational and radical. And to this day, although who I think of when I find myself falling back into that same spiral I was once in where I had such little hope for my own academic success. And even just through his screen he has helped me in so many ways that I can't even describe. And I know that I'm not alone in that. I don't think I ever truly processed how much he meant to me until long after he passed. I wish he were here right now so that I could finally tell him all of this like in person. And if it weren't for him, I really don't think I would be here at Amherst right now. I can't even imagine how many more lives he's touched, whether it was through Zoom or during class or through his own scholarly work. And although I thought that I would have many more years to get to know him and truly express to him how much he means to me, I will always, always be indebted to him. It's been such an incredible honor to study alongside him and to continue calling him one of my most formative mentors even long after he's passed. So thank you Franklin, for everything.

- Thank you. Now I will read a message from one of Professor Odo's past students, Jiajia Zhang, class of '22. "Professor Odo was my hero, mentor, and best friend. I am careful to tell it in this order because as Professor Odo has reminded me throughout the years, historians tend to explain things chronologically. And now that I am closer to becoming a historian than I have ever been, thanks to Professor Odo's mentorship, I am reminded through each encounter with my colleagues just how rare it is to find a hero, mentor and best friend in the same person. Last month a senior colleague reminded me, 'Don't make scholars into your heroes because they will let you down.' I never thought twice about making Franklin Odo into a hero because never once did he let me down. And because of that I graduated from Amherst ready to enter the field of Asian American history unjaded. In my childlike optimism, I retain a deep love, profound joy and fanatical faith in Asian American studies that is the stuff of movies. It began exactly 10 years ago when I picked up those first books from the field and continues to burn bright in Professor Odo's memory. I grew up telling people I wanted to be a professor of Asian American history. From the moment I visited his classroom, Professor Odo never questioned that I wanted to be a professor of Asian American history. All the years later he remains the single only person who never told me to reconsider. From the moment I told him as a 17 year old that I wanted to be just like him, he took my hand and showed me how, he told me what to read, who to talk to, what to avoid, what archives to explore, to connect history with contemporary events, to understand that sometimes when people treat you unfairly, it is reflection of themselves, to remember that if my work generates criticism, then I have made important work. To explain things chronologically, from the moment he learned he was my hero, he endeavored to be my mentor." that is just an excerpt from Jiajia and we hope to share her full video later on. She had a really beautiful 12 minute video dedicated to Professor Odo. Okay, on that note, is there anyone else who would like to come up to share their own story? Okay, well I'd be happy to share my story. I was dreading it a little bit, 'cause I think I'll cry and I left my kleenex on the bottom. I have so many memories of Professor Odo that have all been wonderful. Like Kiko said, I was in his very first class here at Amherst and ever since then he has just been such a bright light in my life. When he encouraged us to found the Asian Alumni Network, he was always so encouraging to us. We hit a lot of roadblocks in the beginning when we were just a couple of young alumni wanting to make a difference. And whenever we shared it to him, he would say, "That's all right, keep going. It's just a roadblock, you'll get over it." And he just always had that beautiful passion and nonchalance and determination that he could make things happen and that we could make things happen. During the pandemic, we had so many virtual events to keep the Amherst community connected and Professor Odo was the one person who always showed up. He was always smiling, he would offer a few laughs here and there because he was always so generous with his laughter and he always kept his camera on, which was amazing because as you all know, during virtual meetings it doesn't always happen. But his camera was always on. One of my favorite, or one of the most meaningful memories for me with Professor Odo was a couple of weeks before I graduated from Amherst, he messaged me and he said, "Will you send me your creative writing thesis," which was about Asian American experiences. So of course I sent it to him, but I figured he was busy with end of year stuff like grading finals and just getting everything tied up before the semester ends. So I didn't really expect him to read it, but I was having lunch with him on, I think it was the last week of class and he talked about little tiny details from my thesis. For example, a little park in Brooklyn that one of my scenes was set in. And then I realized, wow, he actually read my thesis, 'cause you know, for everyone who writes theses, you probably know that not everyone reads them. I don't even think my parents or my brother have read it, so, but I was like, wow. He read it and he knew the details and he just gave me so many comments on random little scenes that I put so much care into. And that was, you know, such a shining example of how Professor Odo went above and beyond to really make sure his students felt seen. And I'm not the only student that he has done this for. And it just amazes me how much time he must put into each and every one of his students. I also really appreciate that Professor Odo believed in me as a creative writer. So much so that when I was graduating I was telling him that I wanted to be a teacher, but it was kind of time consuming and I wanted time to write. And then he gave me this advice. He told me, "Jenny, you should be an overnight security guard." And that's because one of his, he has really fond memories of being at Princeton as an undergrad student. He was an overnight security guard at the Princeton Museum and he had plenty of time to work on his homework at 3:00 AM in the morning and he loved it so much. So he was like, "Jenny, I think this is what you should do. You can be an overnight security guard and it'll be nighttime, no one's gonna show up, and you will work on your writing." I never did become an overnight security guard because I get really spooked by darkness. So I'm not brave enough. But after working for nonprofits and teaching for a few years, I did decide that I wanted to focus more time on writing. So I moved back to LA to take creative writing classes and I also took on a job as a part-time nanny and a lot of people around me were like, "Huh, that's a little strange. Why are you doing that, Jenny?" But I always knew that Professor Odo was proud because he's always proud of everything that we do. And he had always told me that, 'cause he and I had bonded over being children of working class immigrants. And he had always told me that, you know, we grew up with less resources than some of the classmates around us, which meant that we might be a little further behind than other people. And that meant we would have to dedicate more time now to do what we loved. And I have carried that advice with me throughout time in whatever I am doing. And I always know that he's proud of me, whatever I'm doing. So that is just something that I so love and admire about Professor Odo is that he makes each and every student, and every person in his life, he makes them feel like the brightest light in the world. And I don't know how he does it, but I am so grateful that he does. Okay, thank you everyone. On that note, we have a few more minutes if anybody else wants to share a story. Okay.

- I don't have the wealth of anecdotes that you folks have. My name is Tony Chan, you knew Franklin as teacher and his colleague. By the time I met Franklin, he was basically, generationally he and I are not that far apart. He was probably about 10 years older more or less. But we shared some experiences that were similar. He had gone to Princeton at a time when there were very few Asians at Princeton. I attended Amherst when I was one of only two Asians in my class and the only Asian American. Likewise we shared stories of the time when he was a graduate student at Harvard and it was not unusual for students in Cambridge in Somerville to get racist taunts. And I remember as a Harvard law student having the same experience. What I do want to say to you and also to reflect some of the comments that Pawan and Robert Hayashi have expressed to you about the things that were said of him at the conference earlier this month of the Association for Asian American Studies is that he not only had a profound impact on you, but you as a collective and individually had a profound impact on him. And because he and I had, as more or less contemporaries and because we had no professional association, had the ability to talk to each other and reflect on where our life paths had gone. And I can tell you as it was reflected at the AAS conference that Amherst had a profound impact on his life. Even though it was the last chapter, it was a significant chapter. The first time I remember speaking to him, the words he used about his students in Amherst was that they were, quote, "Amazing." Think about all the institutions where he had taught and think about all of the people he had worked with at the Smithsonian and otherwise. He thought the students here were amazing and he actually profoundly loved Amherst as an institution. As an alumnus, I do too. And we shared that in common. And as much as anything, it compelled me to do some things that I hope Amherst will take to heart and take the path which I'm confident it has, to eventually realize the goal of a major and a department in Asian American studies. And I'm convinced not only that that will happen, but that it will be a very, very good department. And so the only message as I say that I have is less about my memories of him, but his memories of you and those are significant. Thank you.

- Okay. And I think that will conclude our... Oh yes please.

- [Caroline] I'm sorry to hold everybody up.

- Oh no, we are happy to have you. Of course.

- Hello everyone, I'm Caroline Yang. I'm a professor, associate professor in the English department at UMass. I first met Franklin on paper through the Roots Reader when I was in graduate school. And I thought he was this radical revolutionary. And so when I met him in person through the five college APA program, I was just struck by how gentle and kind he was. And the reason that I needed to come up here and share my memory of him is that when I was a junior faculty trying to finish my book, I was working with a writing group and it was a group of junior faculty women, none of us were teaching at Amherst College. One was teaching at Mount Holyoke, the other one was teaching at Smith. There was another person from UMass and we could not find a space to write together. And all of a sudden I thought of Franklin and I thought, well Franklin, I mean he seems to be a mover and a shaker, and so let's ask him. So we reached out to him and he shot off some emails and he got us a room in Amherst College for this group of junior scholars. And the way he just did it without, you know, like really knowing us like that well just was so amazing to us, to all of us. And I never, I feel like I never really got a chance to thank him properly, nor did he ever express any kind of like expectation of it. And I forgot to thank him in public in my book, in my acknowledgement. So I will just have to write another one so I can finally thank him. I also wanna say despite, you know, his, or I guess in addition to his gentleness and his kindness and tenderness, he was such a fierce intellectual. He showed up to all the APA five college talks and he did not ask softball questions. He asked hard questions that really showed you how well he listened to people talking about their works. He took all of us so seriously and he respected our works. And as a senior colleague that just meant so much for all of us and we will miss him greatly. And someone mentioned that he never turned off his camera. Yes, on Zoom when we had our meetings on Zoom too, he was the only one who kept his camera on, and he was listening and you know, like some of us were not listening the whole time but he was, so, yeah, we'll just miss him so greatly in our meetings. He was such a fixture, and a beloved fixture in our APA meetings. So thank you so much for this opportunity to share and celebrate Franklin's life.

- Thank you.

- Hi everyone, my name is Olivia. I graduated class of 2020 and I feel like listening to everyone's stories on like struggling to keep it together and also at the same time there's so many like different memories that are coming back to me. But I will say when I think about my time at Amherst, I think in every single aspect, I can't think about it without Professor Odo. I think from the moment I got to campus, he was such a presence and an influence. And my first semester I started working for the Multicultural Resource center. I was the only Asian student staff at the time and we were thinking about planning for events for APA Heritage month in the spring. So I was like, oh, I don't know who to talk to about this. I don't know like what to do. And I wrote an email to Professor Odo and to Professor Hayashi and I met with them for the first time and I think coming from, for me was like, oh, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm lost. And they just had so many ideas and guidance and as I became more involved with the Asian Students Association and in advocating for Asian American studies, Professor Odo was there every step of the way with that guidance whenever I was lost. That spring semester, I took his World War II and Japanese-Americans class and over spring break he took the entire class to DC, and when I think about Professor Odo, I think about him as being a connector. And during that trip he connected us to a lot of his former colleagues at the Smithsonian, to huge AAPI leaders. And I didn't even know it at the time because he just referred to them as his old friends. And later on I realized like, oh this is, these were people who were like really important, who have done important things, who are not easily reachable. And my sophomore year, I became the political chair of the Asian Students Association and again I was very lost. I had some ideas but I didn't really know what to do. And he really supported us during that time and we were advocating for the hire, which led to Professor Dhingra coming onto campus and advocating for a physical space for Asian students on campus. Creating a photo campaign to make Asian American studies more visible was an issue that students cared about as well. And I remember that summer I had been looking for internships, not getting any responses. I sent an email to Professor Odo being like, "Hey, do you have any ideas? I'm looking for like Asian American organizations." And he helped me reach out to a couple people but I wasn't getting responses and I was really stressed out 'cause I wanted to have an internship lined up and he just told me, "Hey don't worry if you don't get any responses, just come intern with me over the summer on campus." And that just was like a breath of relief for me. And that summer I didn't come to campus and I was a student research intern for Professor Odo and I remember he would say, "Here we can have a meeting to talk about the work that you've been doing. Let's meet at Johnny's Tavern so we can have lunch together." And also in the years later he would always say, "Let's get lunch at Johnny's Tavern," instead of being in his office so he could treat us to like a nice meal. And my junior year was when the Asian community space, we had our grand opening and he also just randomly sent an email over like, "Hey, when can you come to my office to pick up these books? I want to donate them to this space so y'all can have a Asian American studies library." And I think so much of what I remember is those random emails that Professor Odo would send to students. And I think only after graduating did I realize how much that meant because he was always connecting us to resources. He would say, "Here's this fund that you can apply to to get resources, money for the Asian Students Association. Here's this person that you should reach out to." And that summer I was interning with him. He also reached out to people in San Francisco, people in Boston, people in D.C., literally across three different cities, across both coasts for me to just like have coffee with people, meet with them and talk to them because I was interested in Asian American advocacy. And I think those conversations were very much the reason why after I graduated I was able to work at an Asian American non-profit and do what I had been dreaming of doing as a student. And just a couple of last memories, I would say my senior year, again, it was just when Covid had started and the job search process was not looking good, the economy was not looking good. And I had reached out saying, "Hey, like I'm trying to look for a job, it's not going very well. Do you have any ideas?" And immediately he jumped into like action mode. He was like, "Okay, I'm gonna email all these people, we'll connect you to them so you can talk to them." And he also said, "Hey by the way, while you're looking for a job, why don't you get a paid internship with the Asian Alumni Network?" And I was like, okay, sure. And that summer I ended up having the opportunity to do research into the history of Asian students and Asian student activism at Amherst, which was something I had always wanted to look into as a student, but never really had the time to do. And one final thing I remember last year I came back to Amherst for the belated commencement for the class of 2020 and I had emailed Professor Odo hoping that we would be able to meet up on campus and he wasn't able to. But in his response he said, "How is your mother doing? I remember you wrote your senior thesis about your mother's experiences as a new immigrant coming to the US," and he had been one of my like a very informal thesis advisor and one of my thesis readers. And I just remembered this like sitting there earlier. But that touched me so much that he had remembered something so personal like that. And I feel like that always showed in all of the conversations that he had in echoing what other people were saying, that he always paid attention to those little details. He was listening when we told our stories and especially now that I've been in the workforce, it's so rare to see that from mentors and to see that someone is really there advocating for you even when you don't see it. And yeah, when I think about what has shaped me at Amherst and my experience, Professor Odo was such a huge part of that.

- Thank you. Before we conclude open mic, I just wanted to make sure, is there anyone that we've missed that wants to come up to speak? Okay. Please.

- Hello. I will keep it quick. My name is Karina, class of 2021, and when I came into college I had no knowledge or interest of Asian American studies. I was like, I'm here to study math and have a good time. And then I came across one of Professor Odo's classes. I was like, oh, Asian-Americans in affirmative action. I remember having a hard time applying for college, let me go take that elective. And then next thing you know I got to research with him. I got to research with Professor Dhingra. I ended up running the South Asian Students Association and working with the Asian American Studies working group. And it has like completely changed the trajectory of my life as it has for many people. Man, I'm getting emotional, but I think the biggest thing that I learned from him was like sometimes all you need to do to make a difference is to give people space to be who they are and they will create something that they never thought was possible and like just add to the world. He knew I was a bit of a perfectionist sometimes, so he was like "Sometimes good and done is better than not done, and whatever you put out there is still an addition to the world. So just like do it." And through that he enabled me and like so many people who are now close friends of mine to do really awesome work. And even though I don't work in the space, I now just have more passion for DEI work, and like taking the mentality of forming connections and giving people space to be who they are to whatever I do. So, I'll leave it at that. Thank you.

- Okay, well thank you everyone for being here today. I think that whatever room Professor Odo was in, it was always full of love and laughter and care for each other. And that is exactly how I feel in this room today. So thank you so much for being here and being a part of it. I also wanna say a special thank you to Professor Odo's family for being here today. Professor Odo, you know, any student of Professor Odo's always knew how much he loved his family because he was always talking about you in his classes and he loved inviting us over for dinner to meet his family. So he always made us feel like a part of your family and we are so grateful to have you all here today to carry on the celebration. We actually have a little lounge right next door and we have food set up for people to eat. We have some of Professor Odo's scholarship laid out on the counter for you all to look at. And we have a little memory book for people to sign that we're going to gift to Professor Odo's family. So we hope to see everyone over in Pemberton Lounge and we can all connect with each other and share more memories of Professor Odo. Thank you everyone. I'll see you next door.