The College honors Professor emeritus of Asian Studies Donald Thurston (center-left) in a reception. Thurston is contributing $2.5 million to Union to endow a new professorship, The Donald R. Thurston and Robert Englebach Professorship in Asian Studies, named after him and his late husband. It is the largest gift a faculty member has made to the College. 

Professor Sheri Lullo, Director of Asian Students says that “Gifting an endowed professorship is something that doesn’t happen very often because it is such an enormous contribution. But this is very much in line with Professor Thurston’s continuous desire, during his thirty years here at Union and after, to develop and expand our program for the study of Asian histories and cultures.” Thurston has been a long time supporter of Asian Studies at Union, founding the East Asian Studies Program and programs abroad to Japan and China. Thurston has supported a  fund to support scholarship in Asian-centered programming and innovative research.