Donald W. Klopf Explained

Donald W. Klopf
Birth Name:Donald William Klopf
Birth Date:22 January 1923
Birth Place:Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Death Place:Kailua, Hawaii
Education:B.A., University of Hawaii
M.A., University of Hawaii
Ph.D., University of Washington
Occupation:Professor, Researcher, Educator, Debate Coach
Language:English
Alma Mater:University of Washington, University of Hawaii
Subject:Debate, Public Speaking, Rhetoric, Intercultural Communication, Interpersonal Communication
Notableworks:Intercultural Encounters, Personal and Public Speaking

Donald W. Klopf (January 22, 1923 - August 27, 2010[1]) was an American intercultural communication researcher and speech communication educator. He was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Speech at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and in the Department of Communication Studies at West Virginia University. He was nationally and internationally known as the father of communication studies in the Pacific-Asian region.[2]

Education and career

Klopf was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and an Army Air Force veteran. He received his B.A. in 1953 and M.A. in 1955, both in Speech from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and his Ph.D. in Speech from the University of Washington in 1958.[3] He completed his postdoctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin and Northwestern University.

Klopf joined the faculty of UH-Manoa in 1958. He was Chair of the Department of Speech, Director of Forensics, and Director of Courses and Curricula for the Continuing Education College. He retired from UH-Manoa in 1982. He then taught at West Virginia University from 1982 to 1992, where he served as Associate Chair of the Department of Communication Studies.[4]

Klopf authored more than 40 books and over 200 articles on debate and argumentation, interpersonal/small group communication, and cross-cultural/intercultural communication. He was President of the Pacific Speech Association and Founding Presidents of the Communication Association of the Pacific (CAP), the World Communication Association (WCA), and the Pacific and Asian Communication Association (PACA). He played a key role in bringing together researchers and educators around the world for communication studies in the global context.[5] [6] [7]

J. Jeffery Auer, who served as President of the WCA for 1985-1991, attested: "Don Klopf’s genius lay not only in teaching and scholarship, but also in his organizational skills, in accomplishing goals for his associations through astute moves, such as accepting early on that individual teachers in the Pacific countries would be most easily attracted to a regional association and attend their conventions through membership in their own national associations."[8]

Klopf collaborated with leading Asian communication scholars such as Satoshi Ishii at Dokkyo University and Takehide Kawashima at Nihon University in Japan (Presidents of the Communication Association of Japan) and Myung-Seok Park at Dankook University in South Korea (President of the Communication Association of Korea) from the 1970s to 1990s and conducted countless cross-national comparative studies of communication practices.[9] Their research findings have been cited in numerous scholarly books and journal articles across disciplines. They also appeared in The Hawaii Times, The Japan Times, and The Korea Times.[10] [11]

Klopf died in his home in Kailua, Hawaii.[12] The special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research (JICR) on “Asia-Pacific Communication” (Vol. 39, No. 3, November 2010) was dedicated to him in honor of his lifetime contributions to international and intercultural relations in the Pacific-Asian region. Jerry L. Allen, then Editor-in-Chief, gratefully acknowledged Klopf's foresight and vision for the WCA's journal, World Communication, which was later renamed as the JICR.[13]

Myung-Seok Park remarked at the 9th Biennial Convention of the Pacific and Asian Communication Association in Seoul, South Korea, on July 6–9, 2012: "Don's lifelong efforts and devotion to the society as well as his untiring zeal and consuming curiosity in studying intercultural communication made a most striking impression upon us. We will forever miss his commitment to the society and his academic presence. We were also lucky and grateful to have had such a precious and faithful friend in Don. We will surely cherish the dear memories of him for a long time deep in our hearts.”[14]

Publications

Books

Articles

External links

Notes and References

  1. McCroskey . James C. . 2010 . Don W. Klopf: A Remembrance . Journal of Intercultural Communication Research . en . 39 . 3 . 153–154 . 10.1080/17475759.2010.540395 . 143889527 . 1747-5759.
  2. Web site: History . 2023-11-08 . World Communication Association.
  3. Book: General Catalog, Faculty Emeriti . University of Hawaii at Manoa . 2013 . 551.
  4. Book: Davis, Leonard M. . A History of the Study of Oral Communication at West Virginia University, Morgantown . WV: Department of Communication Studies, West Virginia University . 1998 . 49–50.
  5. J. Jeffery Auer, "A Brief History of the World Communication Association," World Communication: A Journal of the World Communication Association, Vol. 26, Nos. 3/4, 1997, pp. 1-7.
  6. Myung-Seok Park, "My Road to CAP, WCA, PACA, and Pioneering Intercultural Communication Ideas to English Language Teaching," Human Communication: A Journal of the Pacific and Asian Communication Association, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2009, pp. 1-17.
  7. James R. Bowers, "The Early Legacy of the Communication Association of Japan Journals: Transition from Conference Proceedings to Academic Journals," Human Communication Studies: A Journal of the Communication Association of Japan, Vol. 41, 2013, pp. 77-86.
  8. J. Jeffery Auer, "A Brief History of the World Communication Association," World Communication: A Journal of the World Communication Association, Vol. 26, Nos. 3/4, 1997, p. 1.
  9. Anne Maydan Nicotera and Nicole M. Robinson, “Culture and Aggressive Communication,” in Theodore Avtgis and Andrew S. Rancer (Eds.), Arguments, Aggression, and Conflict: New Directions in Theory and Research, New York: Routledge, 2010, pp. 100-123.
  10. Donald W. Klopf, Satoshi Ishii, and Ronald E. Cambra, “How Communicative Are the Japanese?,” The Hawaii Times, July 6, 1978, pp. 1-2.
  11. Donald W. Klopf, Satoshi Ishii, and Ronald E. Cambra, “Japanese Apprehensive in Oral Encounters: National Traits Compared with Those of Americans,” The Japan Times, June 22, 1978, p. L4.
  12. McCroskey . James C. . 2010 . Don W. Klopf: A Remembrance . Journal of Intercultural Communication Research . en . 39 . 3 . 153–154 . 10.1080/17475759.2010.540395 . 143889527 . 1747-5759.
  13. Allen . Jerry L. . 2010 . The Globalization of the Study of Communication . Journal of Intercultural Communication Research . en . 39 . 3 . 151–152 . 10.1080/17475759.2010.540391 . 144872651 . 1747-5759.
  14. Web site: 2012-07-02 . Asia-Pacific linguists open conference in Seoul . 2023-11-08 . koreatimes . en.