By Jerry Pattengale
“Dr. Edwin Yamauchi knows 26 languages!” The host of the massive retirement party at Miami University continued, “We counted. We actually went through his piles of publications and counted.” While working as Yamauchi’s graduate assistant, I observed as he learned Russian for researching the Scythians (for his Foes from the Northern Frontier). He switched from first-year to third-year level courses over Christmas break and earned A’s in both.
As Yamauchi’s doctoral students, we had a rare firsthand view of his indefatigable nature—and of his similar expectations of us.