I only got to know her six-and-a-half years ago, when in the fall of 2006 Shelby Davis Jr. ’58, then a trustee of Princeton, dropped by my office at the International Center in Frist Campus Center to check us over. He had heard about our outreach programs with international students and scholars, both to service them and to enhance multicultural appreciation and international understanding on and off campus. He was seeking a program to endow for his mother, Kathryn Wasserman Davis, a renowned philanthropist and expert on the Soviet Union, in celebration of her oncoming 100th birthday. He liked our program.
Subsequently Kathryn also liked the programs when I told her about them during my visit to her in Florida.
I was overtaken by Kathryn’s graciousness as she greeted me in a Chinese silk jacket, saying the jacket was to honor my national background. As luck would have it, I was wearing a Chinese dress. Our conversation was easy and interesting. She skillfully found out much about me, my husband Gregory — an economics professor — our life stories, our aspirations and our works in the United States and at Princeton. She, together with Shelby Jr. and his wife Gale, showed me a video presentation she had made in 2006, at age 99, when she received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The video presentation, which she wrote herself, summed up her lifetime effort to build bridges between nations. “We all need to talk more, not to our friends but to our enemies,” she said.
A scholar who had received her doctorate in political science from the University of Geneva, she authored “The U.S.S.R. and the League of Nations, 1919-1933.” Her philanthropic interests covered many scholarly institutions, as well as the waterways in several states in America. I was also impressed by her wall-full of brilliantly colored oil paintings she had started to create at age 96.
Kathryn visited us three times at the Davis International Center, which was dedicated in May 2007 with her present. She, together with Shelby Jr., presented our 2008 annual International Service Awards to American and international students while attending the opening of her oil painting exhibit, which she allowed us to present. We showcased her paintings again during our 2008 open house for returning alumni during reunions weekend. She finally visited us in May 2010 when, unable to join us at the evening Service Awards presentation because of a scheduling conflict, she volunteered to come for lunch on the same day and meet some student leaders. With no exception, students and faculty participating in these three events were overwhelmed by her grace, her gentle sense of humor, her persistent interest in the students’ aspirations and her encouragement for them to serve the world. She exuded wisdom, humanity and love of life.
She was my inspiration and mentor. I loved her and shall miss her wisdom and gentle encouragements.
I like to think that a glistening star is always shining above us, bestowing wisdom and blessings upon participants of her and our Davis International Center, in perpetuity.
She is, in fact, with us forever.
Paula Chow
Retired founding director, Davis International Center (1978-2010)
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