Ensuring Excellence for Indo-European Studies

A. Richard Diebold, Jr., provides broad, endowed support for a program that is the only one of its kind in the nation. January 17, 2005 -- Why would a professor emeritus of anthropology from the University of Arizona, who earned a Ph.D. from Yale and also taught at Harvard and Stanford, become a devoted supporter of UCLA? The answer is simple: Indo-European studies. A. Richard Diebold, Jr., has been a friend to UCLA's Indo-European studies program for more than a decade, contributing substantial, wide-ranging support for faculty and students, library acquisitions, and other needs. His own specialties, linguistic anthropology and philology, are important elements in Indo-European studies, an interdisciplinary field that examines the history and prehistory of the languages and cultures that are spread from India, Central Asia, and the Near East to Europe. Understandably, most scholarly activity in Indo-European studies occurs in Europe. In the United States only UCLA offers a "dedicated" Indo-European studies program, with an interdisciplinary curriculum that allows students to earn a graduate degree in their own field. Richard Diebold's interest in UCLA began in 1992 when he joined Friends and Alumni of Indo-European studies, and he has been a steadfast supporter and committed donor ever since. In 1999 he established the A. Richard Diebold, Jr., Endowment in Indo-European studies to provide comprehensive support for the program. Three years later he created the A. Richard Diebold Endowed Fellowship in Indo-European Studies. The first Diebold Fellow began the program this fall. More recently, Diebold endowed a professorship in Indo-European studies, with support for a graduate fellowship and a book fund. In total, Diebold's philanthropy has provided more than $4 million—most of it in endowed funds—for the program. Because an endowed chair is an honor coveted by academics, the A. Richard Diebold, Jr., Endowed Chair in Indo-European Studies will enable the program to continue to attract and retain eminent scholars and researchers who are highly regarded in their field. "It's gratifying for me to know that this endowed chair will help UCLA for generations to come by supporting the teaching and research activities of a distinguished faculty member," Diebold said. Kanehiro Nishimura, a graduate student who began studying Indo-European languages as an undergraduate in his native Japan, is one of many students whose nonresident tuition is supported by the Diebold Endowment. "Indo-European studies has accumulated a great deal of knowledge in the last 100 years," Nishimura said. "Support for graduate students will mean that we can pass on what we've learned to future generations." With establishment of the Diebold Fellowship and the additional fellowship that accompanies the endowed chair, the future of student support in the program is assured. Dieter Gunkel, the first Diebold Fellow, said, "I think the sort of generosity that Richard Diebold exhibits is one of the highest forms of philanthropy. Support for graduate students is important no matter what the discipline, but maybe it's most important for disciplines like Indo-European studies, where the products of research might not always be easily translatable into capital." www.humnet.ucla.edu/pies/home.html