Necrology
Ronald Aqua '69
Jan. 23, 1947-Jan. 2, 2021
Ronald Aqua ’69 was a scholar, who became the first program director at the newly formed U.S. Japan Foundation, and an adventurous traveler, who traced his passion for other cultures back to his junior year abroad in Sweden.
“A talented thinker and writer from a young age, Ron’s insatiable thirst for knowledge and a gift for words developed early and stood the test of time across a variety of academic, business, and advisory positions,” his family said in his published obituary.
Aqua, 73, died on Jan. 2, 2021, at his home in Austin, Texas. He was born on Jan. 23, 1947, in Philadelphia, a son of John and Helen Streifer Aqua, and grew up in the Catskills. Aqua prepared for college at Monticello (N.Y.) High School where he was valedictorian of his class.
At Hamilton he majored in government, where he earned departmental honors, worked on The Spectator, and played with the brass choir. His fellow musicians remember him as an outstanding trumpet player; in the spring of 1969, he played with the Paul Kuentz Paris Chamber Orchestra when it visited the Hill. He was in Gryphon for a year.
Decades later, Aqua observed that his junior year abroad whetted his appetite for more adventures abroad and inspired him to join the Peace Corps soon after graduation. He was assigned to South Korea, where he taught English in a middle school in Seosan, on the coast. That’s where he met Maeja Yoon, a local teacher, and they married.
When they returned to the U.S., Aqua decided to pursue a career related in some way to Asia, so he enrolled at Cornell University to earn a doctorate in government. He wrote his dissertation about Japanese politics.
“Ron always had a talent for communicating around the world — in addition to attaining fluency in Korean during his time in the Peace Corps, he also achieved fluency in Japanese as part of his subsequent Ph.D. studies, including a couple of years living in Tokyo to perform his dissertation research,” the obituary noted.
He launched his career at the Social Science Research Council in New York, administering scholarly programs concerned with Japan and Korea. He moved on to the U.S. Japan Foundation, eventually becoming president. He left in 1996, worked for two years at Mississippi State University, where he was director of the Center for International Security and Strategic Studies, then settled in Austin, becoming president of the Texas International Education Consortium. In his civic life, he chaired a sister-city committee between Austin and a city in Japan and served on a mayor’s task force to develop Austin’s international infrastructure.
“He considered himself both a New Yorker and a Texan, as always finding personal pleasure in bringing together different cultures, ideas, and people in a wonderful mixed blend of humanity,” the obituary said.
Aqua also gave back to his alma mater. His sister, the late Linda Aqua Stroble, was a member of the Kirkland College charter Class of 1968 and one of the first women math majors on College Hill. To celebrate her legacy, on his 50th reunion from Hamilton, Aqua established The Linda Aqua Strobel Teaching Prize in Mathematics. In addition, he served as chairman of his 25th reunion fund and gift co-chair of his 45th reunion committee.
“I have been back to the Hill several times to share my experiences with faculty (some of whom were barely able to conceal their amusement) and students, and have been gratified to see the development of a strong program in East Asian Studies at the College,” he wrote in his 25th reunion yearbook.
Even with all his professional accomplishments, his family said, Aqua’s greatest joy was spending time with his family, and he was a loving caretaker when his wife became ill. “He will always be remembered as someone who cared for those close to him above all else and who left a unique mark on everyone around him,” his obituary said.
Survivors include two sons and three grandchildren, among others. His cousin is Elyssa Charlotte Feuer ’19.
