Yu-Ju Chih, 98, passed away peacefully of natural causes on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at his home in Champaign, Illinois, surrounded by family.

Y.J. was born on November 14, 1917 in Shuang Miao village in Zhaoxian County, near Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China. He was the third of six children of Feng-chu Chih and Ran Chao. In 1949, Y.J. married Dorothy Tao-Chung Wei in San Francisco, California. He is survived by his wife Dorothy and their three children: Julie Chih Staresnick of Indianapolis, Indiana; Les J. Chih and wife Tammy of Worthington, Ohio; and David Wei Chih and wife Teresa Mok of Champaign, Illinois. Also surviving are seven grandchildren: Michelle, Jennifer, Brian, Alexander, Matthew, Joshua, and Ethan; and four great-grandchildren: Madison, Evan, Norah, and Rory.

The first person from his village to go to college, Y.J. earned a BA from National Peking University in 1940, MA in international relations from University of California, Berkeley in 1950, and PhD in political science from Indiana University Bloomington in 1965. While in college during the Second Sino-Japanese War, his university relocated to Kunming in Yunnan Province, as part of the National Southwestern Associated University. During World War II, he worked as a news translator for three years in New Delhi, India before being transferred to the United States in 1945. In 1949, Y.J. began his career teaching Chinese language at the University of California, Berkeley while a graduate student. For 10 years from 1951-1961, he taught at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut at the Institute for Far Eastern Languages, where he helped develop the Yale series of Chinese language textbooks. From 1961 through his retirement in 1985 as professor emeritus, he taught classes on modern China and Chinese language at Indiana University Bloomington, where he was a founding faculty member and later the chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature.

Y.J. and Dorothy lived in Bloomington, Indiana from 1961-2007, in Fishers, Indiana from 2007-2015, and most recently in Champaign, Illinois. A key to longevity, he believed, was to follow the Confucian teaching to eat only until 80% full. He modeled self-discipline and moderation as fundamentals to success in life, and encouraged his family to be serious about education and to set high standards for themselves. He loved learning, always had a dictionary handy, and enjoyed reading the New York Times every day.

A celebration of his life is planned for Saturday, June 18, 2016, at 2 pm, at Northridge Gracious Retirement Living, 14532 Allisonville Road, Fishers, Indiana 46038. Condolences may be offered at renner-wikoffchapel.com.