Friend and colleague, Alex will be sorely missed. Alexander Saxton embodied the qualities of both scholar and activist: courageous, a stickler for seeing social truths and social justice as intertwined, and perhaps foremost, possessing a keen and radical understanding of human nature not as something “that had always been”, but rather, as something that could be transformed, day by day, decade by decade into its fuller potential. This faith, as Alex demonstrated in his writings and work, was aptly applied to his support of and development of Asian American Studies at UCLA. The subsequent flourishing of the field is in no small way due to the efforts of individuals such as Alexander Saxton, who stood up for the mission of Asian American Studies when it was not easy to do so. Alexander Saxton participated and supported the work of the Center’s Amerasia Journal from 1977 to the present.
-Russell C. Leong
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