Karen Ito Edgerton, 76, lifelong Bruin, professor, researcher, and trailblazer for UCLA Asian American Studies, passed away peacefully on November 23, 2023.

Predeceased by her husband, Robert Edgerton; she is survived by her sister Robbie Ito (Leland) Rorex; nephew Robert (Allison) and their three children Clark, Brooke, and Locke: niece LeighAnn; partner Lee Young; and by many other relatives.

Dr. Karen Ito was a dedicated anthropologist, committed to promoting understanding of the diversity of human cultural experience. Karen was a rare individual and her contributions to the field of anthropology were many and significant. She was an extraordinary ethnographic field researcher and her work reflected her love of and interest in others. Her book, Lady Friends: Hawaiian Ways and the Ties that Define exemplifies the deep caring and concern she brought to her work, writing about friendships and social ties among these Hawaiian women as well as her deep feeling of them being her own "lady friends." With this book and her articles, she enhanced the understanding of the many meanings of being a person in cultural context. Her work sought to elucidate the experience of health and well-being, particularly among Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, and particularly among women in these groups. Karen's talents and skills as a teller of people's stories was unparalleled and this was reflected in her work – she put "the meat on the bones," making her studies real and accessible.

Karen went beyond academic publications in promoting the understanding and well-being of Asian-American and Pacific Islanders and was instrumental in establishing Asian American Studies and the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA. During this time, she co-led a major federally funded research project on health care for Asian-American women.

Karen was a well-loved and highly regarded teacher, mentor and role model. She developed courses to meet the needs of her students and the field, including the first course on Asian-American women that is still taught today. She taught at Mills College and held positions in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA. In her work with the anthropological consulting group, LTG Associates she furthered the application of research to policy and practice in areas including mental and spiritual health and diseases including tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Ito earned all of her degrees in anthropology from UCLA (BA 1969, MA 1973 and Ph.D. 1978). She highly valued her educational experiences in anthropology. She loved seeing students grow and thrive which led her to establish the Robert B. Edgerton Endowed Graduate Student Award upon the death of her late husband. This fund has supported an impressive array of graduate students' research and Karen always took it upon herself to lunch with these students, encouraging them in their work. Upon her death, she has established the first endowed professorship in the Department of Anthropology, again in the name of her late husband.

In all of these accomplishments, and in her love of other peoples and their lives and stories, Dr. Karen Ito will be deeply missed.

A memorial service was held at Fukui Mortuary on Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 11 am in Los Angeles.

Please, no flowers or koden. If you would like to make a gift, donations can be made in Karen's name to: The UCLA Foundation for the Robert Edgerton Endowed Graduate Student Award Fund #82315E and send it to UCLA College of Letters and Science, 1309 Murphy Hall, Box 951413, Los Angeles, CA 90095.

Online donation link:

https://giving.ucla.edu/campaign/Donate.aspx?SiteNum=210

(Select:  Robert Edgerton Endowed Graduate Fellowship)