[INDOLOGY] Demise of Professor Edwin Gerow

[Will Tuladhar-Douglas]

On Thursday, 24 July 2025 13:39:09 BST Deepak Sarma via INDOLOGY wrote:
> I was fortunate to see Prof. Gerow in January of this year. I was lalso ucky
> to have studied with him when he taught at Reed College in Portland Oregon.
> If it were not for him I would not have studied Madhva/ Davita Vedanta.
> 
> I am glad that we were able to publish a Festschrift of sorts:
> 
> https://www.jstor.org/stable/i24631627
> 
> Ācāryasamarpaṇam: Studies in Honor of Edwin Gerow
> International Journal of Hindu Studies
> Vol. 19, No. 1/2, Special Issue: Studies in Honor of Edwin Gerow
> (APRIL–AUGUST 2015)
> 
> I am very sad indeed but so grateful to have crossed paths with him.
> 
> Here he is in January 2025.

I was Gerow's first Sanskrit student when he came to Reed. His ruthless 
exactitude, demanding standards in the classroom and - in the very same breath 
- willingness to stretch very far beyond acceptable disciplinary boundaries 
was a much-needed medicine, and gave me the inspiration I needed to pursue 
Sanskrit, Asian anthropology, and Buddhist studies through several 
universities, pathsalas, and monasteries. I had no idea I shared a guru with 
so many other, far better, Sanskrit scholars! 

Seeing all these tributes - and especially yours, Deepak - I looked out old 
correspondence with him and remembered how supportive he was in the years 
after I left Reed and was working to save the money to attend Chicago.

—WBTD.
- - -- --- ----- -------- -------------
Will Tuladhar-Douglas
will at tending.to