Lawrence Hiroshi Mamiya

1942 - 2019

Lawrence Hiroshi Mamiya

- - Lawrence Hiroshi Mamiya, 76, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Africana Studies at Vassar College and Poughkeepsie resident for over 40 years, died peacefully in Hawaii on 1/7/19 surrounded by his family.

Born on 7/10/1942 in Honolulu, he was the son of Edwin and Hisako Mamiya. An honor graduate of McKinley High School and the University of Hawaii, he earned a MDiv degree from Union Theological Seminary and PhD from Columbia University in New York City. He did community organizing in East Harlem, voter registration and civil rights advocacy in Georgia as part of SNCC and the SW Georgia Project, and was a youth minister and advisor to Vanguard, a pioneering LGBT+ group at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, before he took his first teaching position at Fisk University in Nashville, TN.

During his years in Poughkeepsie he served on Dutchess County's first Commission on Human Rights and on the boards of the New Day Repertory Theater and R.E.A.L. Skills Network, Inc. While at Vassar, he was a leader in developing prison education programs bringing generations of students and incarcerated men together to learn from each other.

A noted scholar, he co-authored "The Black Church in the African American Experience" with C. Eric Lincoln, which won the Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in 1990. He also did extensive studies of African Americans and Islam, contributed to a history of Riverside Church in NYC and participated in academic forums across the U.S. and internationally in Japan and Turkey.

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, May Lawson Mamiya, his son Ralph, daughter Rachel, and their families. He is also survived by his sister-in-law Barbara Mansfield in Poughkeepsie, brother and sister-in-law Albert and Lola Mamiya and brother-in-law Victor Okada, as well as beloved nieces, nephews and cousins.

There will be a program to celebrate and honor Larry's life with a focus on his work in prison education on Oct. 5 from 2-4 pm in the Aula, Ely Hall at Vassar College. In addition the Africana Studies Department has scheduled "Africana Studies and the Future of Freedom: the Larry H.Mamiya Memorial Conference Commemorating 50 years of Africana Studies at Vassar" Nov. 2-3.

Donations in his memory can be made to the Larry Mamiya Fund for Activism and Justice, established to support prison studies initiatives, through the Vassar College giving website or by sending a check (made out to Vassar College - Larry Mamiya Fund) to Box 725, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604.