Kling, Blair B. (1929-) | University of Illinois Archives

Blair Bernard Kling (1929-2011) was professor of history (1962-2000) and professor emeritus (2000-11) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He was a noted scholar of nineteenth-century Indian and Southeast Asian history, and he helped to establish the first Asian center at UIUC.

Kling was born on April 17, 1929, in Chicago, Illinois. He completed high school in Long Beach, California, and earned a bachelor's degree (1950) and a master's degree (1955) from the University of California, Berkley. He studied in India on a Fulbright grant (1957-58) and earned a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1960, specializing in the history of India and Southeast Asia. Kling held positions at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, and Harpur College prior to joining the history faculty at UIUC in 1962. Kling's research interests were primarily in entrepreneurial activity and economic development in nineteenth-century Bengal. His publications include The Blue Mutiny: The Indigo Disturbances in Bengal, 1859-1862 (1966); Partner in Empire: Dwarkanath Tagore and the Age of Enterprise in Eastern India (1976); "Paternalism in Indian Labor: The Tata Iron and Steel Company of Jamshedpur" (1998); and "Hollywood's India: The Meaning of RKO's Gunga Din" (coauthored with Frederic Copie Jaher, 2008).

Kling married Julia Norian, and together they had one daughter (Julia) and one son (William). He died on May 2, 2011.

Source:

"Blair Kling," News-Gazette, May 5, 2011, accessed May 28, 2020, https://www.news-gazette.com/obituaries/blair-kling/article_cde64f56-39b2-5a1b-a88d-bbc0a916e346.html.