The Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Thanks Gerald and Victoria Read
for a Generous Gift to Kent State University

By Victor Kobayashi, President, CIES

CIES recently received an announcement by Kent State University President Lester Lefton that the late Dr. Gerald Read and Mrs. Read have presented a generous gift that includes the support of CIES archives.

The gift permits the renovation of the 10^th floor of the Campus Library that doubles the space for Kent’s archival collections, including the CIES archive. The gift also creates Gerald H. Read Archival Assistantships that will help maintain the archives.  Kent State University is known for its excellent Library and Information Science programs.  It also has a Center for Peaceful Change, that was formed as a living memorial of the tragic shootings on May 4, 1970, of students who were protesting the Vietnam War, 

The announcement made it clear that the gift was inspired by Gerald Read’s

 central role as a founder of the Comparative International Education Society (CIES).  Read, throughout his life, furthered scholarship and teaching in comparative and international education through his leadership in CIES and on the campus where he served throughout his professional career. 

CIES sends its thanks to Victoria and Gerald Read for their generosity, and also to Dr. Lester Lefton for Kent’s continuing support of CIES activities, and also congratulate him on his recent appointment as Kent’s 11^th President. 

We also take this opportunity to thank Dr. Kim Sebaly, long time CIES member who worked with Dr. Read at Kent State who oversees the organization of the CIES archives at the KSU library on a volunteer basis, with help from his occasional graduate assistants, and the KSU library archivists. Dr. Elizabeth Sherman, CIES historian, has also been important to CIES in using the archive to retrieve information dealing with the evolution of CIES as an important scholarly and research organization.  The challenge today is for the CIES secretariat and Kent State to work together to help make digitalized information archived in more stable and permanent form.   CIES websites and official email exchanges, for example, need to be stored from time to time, as they change or even disappear from the internet. 

CIES also thanks Dr. Vilma Seeberg, Kent State, who continues to be  an important liaison for CIES with Kent State University, after serving on the CIES Board of Directors from 2003 to 2006, including her continuing help, in incorporating CIES at the Gerald Read Center in Ohio;  Dr. Linda Robertson, director of  the Gerald Read Center for International/Intercultural Education, and  Dr. David England, Dean, College and Graduate School of Education, Health and Human Services for their continual support of comparative and international education efforts on their campus, that was pioneered by the late Dr. Gerald Read since his appointment to the faculty of Kent State in 1948, with his interest in revolutionary societies and education.

Dr. Read’s first studies focused on education in Cuba, and then expanded to the former USSR and other socialist nations.  Dr. Read’s long service to CIES was recognized when he was appointed an Honorary Fellow in 1999 by the Society.  Dr. Read passed away September 13, 2005, at age 92.