Lee-hsia Hsu Ting (1923-2005)

Dr. Ting was born on February 7, 1923 in Yangchow, China. She attended the National Central University in Chungking and upon graduation, worked as a faculty assistant to help the acting chairman administer the English Department. After Japan surrendered, she went to the United States to study at Mount Holyoke College with a graduate fellowship. She received M.A. in 1948 and became an assistant professor of English at the University of Nanking, where she married Nai-tung Ting on November 11.

Lee-hsia Hsu Ting

In 1956, she and her husband immigrated to the United States under the Chinese Refuge Relief Act. In 1965, she received M.LS in library science from the Graduate School of Library Science, University of Texas. She worked for the Harlingen (Texas) Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Public Schools as a school librarian and also taught extension courses for the Library School of the University of Texas and summer school of Wisconsin State University - Eau Claire. Dr. Ting was the first Chinese woman who ever received Ph.D. in library science from the University of Chicago in 1970. Her doctoral thesis is later published as Government control of the press in modern China, 1900-1949 (Harvard East Asian monograph series 57. Cambridge, Mass.: East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, 1974). She also co-authored with her husband Chinese folk narratives; a bibliographical guide (with Nai-tung Ting. San Francisco, Calif.: Chinese Materials Center, 1984). After graduated from the University of Chicago, she taught at the University of Chicago, Northern Illinois University, and Western Illinois University where she retired in 1993. In 1985, she was a Fulbright scholar to teach at Wuhan University in China.

Dr. Ting was active in her profession. During her tenure as president of the Chinese American Librarians Association (1980-1981), she was instrumental in having a Chinese delegation of librarians to attend the American Library Association annual conference. She also contributed to donating books to China through the Books for China Foundation.

Sshe died on January 7, 2005.