School Notes: Yale College
January/February 2022

Former AACC director passes away

Mary Li Hsu ’80, former director of the Asian American Cultural Center and assistant dean in Yale College, died on November 8 after battling neuroendocrine cancer. As an undergraduate, she was an active member of the Asian American Students Association, and after returning to Yale in 1992 to lead the AACC she was known for her strong advocacy for the AACC community. She also taught in Yale College in the spring of 1997. This past June, as the AACC celebrated its 40th anniversary, alumni announced a new endowment fund for the center in Hsu’s honor, the Dean Mary Li Hsu Discretionary Fund, which will support AACC activities and academic offerings in Asian American studies.

Remembering the first dean of Branford College

Richard (Dick) Shank ’45WE, ’50MEng, Branford College’s first residential college dean and later registrar of Yale College, died on November 17, 2021. He graduated as valedictorian from Upper Arlington High School in June 1942 and matriculated at Yale College that summer with the class of ’45W. His studies at Yale were interrupted while he served as a lieutenant JG in the US Navy during World War II. At the end of the war, he returned to Yale and graduated in 1948 with a BE in electrical engineering. As an undergraduate, he served as a freshman counselor for three years; and as a longtime Branford fellow, he continued to serve Yale College as chief marshal for Yale Commencement. After his retirement from Yale, he taught math at Hamden Hall.