Honoree-
David J. Steinberg

Dr. David J. Steinberg, the ninth president of Long Island University, has served the institution since 1985. The son of the late Rabbi Milton Steinberg of Manhattan’s Park Avenue Synagogue, he was born in New York City and was educated at Phillips Academy at Andover, Malvern College in England, and Harvard College, from which he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. After a Fulbright year at the University of the Philippines and a year at Columbia University on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, he returned to Harvard, where he earned an M.A. in East Asian studies in 1963, and a Ph.D. in history in 1964. Dr. Steinberg also holds a Litt.D. from Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea, and an L.L.D. from Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea. He began his teaching career in the Department of History at the University of Michigan, where he rose to the rank of full professor. In 1973, he joined the administration of Brandeis University as executive assistant to the president, becoming vice president and University secretary in 1977.

The author of numerous books and articles on Southeast Asia and, in particular, Philippine history, Dr. Steinberg has taught, lectured and written about this important area of the world for a third of a century. His first book, “Philippine Collaboration in World War II,” won the University Press Award in 1969. “The Philippines: A Singular and a Plural Place,” now in its third edition, was described by U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Nicholas Platt as “the best single-volume guide to understanding the Philippines, past and present.” Dr. Steinberg edited, and with six colleagues co-authored, “In Search of Southeast Asia,” which, in its second edition, remains one of the major textbooks on the area in use around the world. He was a member of the international observer team that monitored the Philippine presidential elections when Corazon Aquino defeated Ferdinand Marcos. He has written numerous Op-Ed pieces and has been a consultant to U.N. agencies, the United States government, the Ford Foundation, the National Geographic Society and others. Dr. Steinberg will become chairman of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in March 2002.

He and his wife, Joan, a chanteuse and real estate executive, reside in McGrath House on the C.W. Post Campus. The couple has two Cavalier King Charles spaniels, whom they sometimes bring to football games on campus. His greatest personal accomplishment — raising his two superb sons, Noah and Jonah.

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