Haskins, John F. (John Franklin), 1919-

John Franklin Haskins was born on the 16th of November 1919 in La Junta, Colorado. He married Ilma Ann Schramm on June 13, 1944. They had two daughters: Katherine Wheldon Haskins and Ann Griffith Haskins. From 1941-1946 he was on active duty in the Infantry, Corps of Engineers, US Army Air Force and Military Intelligence. During the years 1944-1946 he served with the Army Air Force in China, Burma, and India. He was recalled to active duty in 1950 for the Korean conflict, where he served as a prisoner of war interrogation officer in the Chinese and Russian languages. He also taught aerial photo interpretation, aerial photo survey and trimetregon aerial photometronomy in 1942-1945 and 1950-1952. During the period when he was not on active military duty, John Haskins completed his BFA in 1947 from the University of Colorado. His major was Painting and Commercial Art with a minor in Architecture. In 1950, he worked as a draughtsman in New York City until being recalled into the service. Upon his resignation from the Corps of Engineers-Military Intelligence in May of 1953, he returned to New York City where he obtained various chief draughtsman positions while working towards a PhD in Art History at New York University. In 1957-1958, he taught Art History at Finch College. From June 1958 until June 1961, he was an instructor of Art History and Archaeolgy at Columbia University. John Haskins received a Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Art from New York University in February of 1961. In June of that year, he was promoted to Assistant Professor, a rank which he held until December 1963, when he left Columbia to join the Fine Arts Department at the University of Pittsburgh. John Haskins had a long teaching career in Asiatic Art and Archaeology at the University of Pittsburgh. He joined the faculty in 1964 as an Associate Professor, and was also a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University from 1966 through 1969. In September of 1969, he was made a Full Professor of the Fine Arts Department, a position which he held until his retirement in January of 1988. John Haskins taught over 31 courses during his 27 year tenure in the department. Most of the courses that he taught related to Asian and Russian Art, Architecture, and Archaeology. A majority of these courses were graduate seminars. He also directed numerous PhD dissertations in the Fine Arts Department. John Haskins was conversant in the four languages of French, Italian, Russian, and a Yunnanese dialect of Chinese. He also had a reading knowledge of German, Greek (Classical), Latin, and Turkish. John Haskins was awarded eight fellowships and scholarships from 1958 to 1975. He was a two time Guggenheim Fellow. The first of the Guggenheim Fellowships was in 1958, when he traveled and studied in the U.S.S.R., which included Siberia and Central Asia. In 1963, he was awarded a second Guggenheim Fellowship. He was also awarded two Grants for Travel from the American Council of Learned Societies in 1969 and 1973. In addition, the University of Pittsburgh awarded John Haskins with Faculty Grants in 1973 and 1975. He also received a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant in 1975. Around the mid 1970s, John Haskins was diagnosed with diabetes. Concurrent with this decline in health he stopped publishing and the fellowships ended, but he continued to teach until 1987. Upon his retirement in January of 1988, he became Professor Emeritus of the Fine Arts Department. John Haskins maintained an office in the department and resumed publishing. In 1988, he published the article "China and the Altai," and wrote several book reviews, all for the Bulletin of the Asia Institute. John Haskins died on December 20, 1991.

From the description of Papers of John F. Haskins, 1960-1990. (University of Pittsburgh). WorldCat record id: 30993955