Cecil Hobbs (April 22, 1907 – December 8, 1991) was an American scholar of

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

, best known for being the head of the Southern Asia Section of the Orientalia (now Asian) Division of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

. He was regarded as a major contributor to scholarship on Asia and the development of South East Asian coverage in American library collections during a career at the Library of Congress spanning 28 years. Born on April 22, 1907 in

Martins Ferry, Ohio Martins Ferry is a city in Belmont County, Ohio, United States, on the Ohio River across from Wheeling, West Virginia. It is the largest city in Belmont County. The population was 6,915 as of the 2010 census. It is most known as the birth place o ...

, Hobbs graduated with B.A. degree in

from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

, where he was a lecturer for two years. In 1933, he was awarded a B.D. degree from the Colgate Rochester Divinity School in New York state. Hobbs's initial contact with Southeast Asian studies came in 1935, when he traveled with his wife Cecile Jackson Hobbs to Burma, where he served under the American Baptist Mission Board as a field administrator and professor at the Pierce Divinity College and the Burma Theological Seminary. He taught in Burmese. With the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Imperial Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

swept through

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

and

South East Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

, and Hobbs and his wife returned to the United States after the

Japanese invasion of Burma The Japanese invasion of Burma was the opening phase of the Burma campaign in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, which took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. During the first year of the campaign (December 1941 to mid-1942) ...

in 1942. Hobbs resumed graduate study at Colgate Rochester, receiving both a Th.M. degree and a doctorate of

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. Hobbs joined the Library of Congress in 1943, specialising on Southeast Asia, and was elevated to the head of the Southern Asian Section in 1958. During his period as the head, he made six field trips to Southeast Asia to acquire publications for the Library. His accounts of the publishing landscape and publications obtained were distributed by the Southeast Asia Program of

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

for dissemination to scholars and librarians across the globe. In addition, he authored ''Understanding the Peoples of Southern Asia'' (

Press, 1967); ''History and Culture of Southern Asia (University of Illinois Press, 1968); and Research Needs Relating to Southeast Asia'' (Southeast Asia Development Advisory Group, 1969), and bibliographical publications. After his retirement, he served for one year as a consultant to the library of the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

in Canberra. He also served as a subeditor for Southern Asia for the ''

American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...

''; he sat on the advisory board of contributing consultants to the '' International Library Review'' (London); and was a member of the international editorial advisory board of '' Southeast Asia; an International Quarterly''. Hobbs was a charter member of the

Association for Asian Studies The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The Association provides members with an Annu ...

, which was set up in 1948 as the Far Eastern Association. He was the chairman of its Committee on American Library Resources on Southeast Asia for several years, and remained active in the activities of its successor body, the Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia. He was key player in organising the Conference on American Library Resources on Southern Asia held in 1957 and the Conference on Access to Southeast Asian Research Materials in 1970. Both of these events were held at the Library of Congress. In recognition of his contributions to Southeast Asian librarianship and the Library of Congress, he was decorated with a Meritorious Service Award in 1967 and a Superior Service Award in 1971. Away from his academic career, Hobbs served as a clergyman in the

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Conference of the

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...

. He died at the age of 84 on December 8, 1991. His wife died soon after on January 9, 1992. A joint memorial service was held for the couple on January 16, 1992 at the Fairlington United Methodist Church in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hobbes, Cecil 1907 births 1991 deaths Cornell University faculty People from Martins Ferry, Ohio Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School alumni