Harry Byron Earhart

 

Harry Byron Earhart, age 91, passed away peacefully at home in San Diego, CA, with his sons

holding both his hands.

Byron was born in Aledo, IL the third child and only son of Kenneth Harry Earhart (1911-2008)
and Mary Louise (Haack) Earhart (1912-2008).
He grew up in Havana, IL, where he met his high school sweetheart, Virginia Margaret Donaho.
They were married September 2, 1956, a few years after graduating from Havana HS. He
attended Knox College (1953-56) and the University of Chicago (1956-62), where he studied
under Mircea Eliade and Joseph Kitagawa. A Fulbright Scholarship sent him to Tohoku
University in Sendai, Japan (1962-65) to conduct field research under Ichiro Hori. He received
his PhD (U of Chicago, 1965) and joined the faculty of the Department of Comparative Religion
at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI) in 1966. He was the recipient of a
Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award from WMU (1981), a Distinguished Faculty Award from the
State of Michigan (1982), and the Philo Farnsworth Award for his video, “Fuji: Sacred Mountain
of Japan” (1991). Named professor emeritus (2005) by WMU, he taught adjunct courses until
2018. He authored several books covering different aspects of Japanese religiosity, was creator
and series editor of the ten-volume Religious Traditions of the World (1986), and contributed
numerous articles, abstracts, and book reviews to scholarly journals. His seminal textbook
Japanese Religion: Unity in Diversity (1969, 5th revised ed 2014) was continuously in print for
over fifty years. Over thirty prestigious academic grants and fellowships allowed him to
regularly conduct academic research in Japan, spend a semester teaching in Korea (1973), and
join one of the first groups of Americans invited to tour the People’s Republic of China (1978).
His professional memberships included the American Academy of Religion, the Association for
Asian Studies, and the American Society for the Study of Religion.
After he and Virginia moved to San Diego in 1999, Byron enjoyed traveling, gardening, tennis,
and bridge. Retirement allowed him to return to a desire of his youth, writing and publishing
several novels as well as a memoir of his WWII childhood experiences, At Grandma’s House.
Survived by sons Kenneth (Florence Fong) and David (Susumu Kamimura) of San Diego, CA, and
Paul (Mary Minor) of Portland, OR; grandchildren Michelle Bearheart (Jack Bearheart) and
Adrienne Earhart of San Diego, and Bryce and Dylan Earhart of Portland, OR; and great-
grandchild Asa Bearheart of San Diego. Predeceased by his wife Virginia and sister Sylvia Heye,
he is survived by sister Rosemary Watson of Havana, IL and numerous nephews, nieces,
grandnephews,
Visitation will be held at Hurley Funeral Home, in Havana, on Monday, April 13, 2026, from 12:30, until 1:30 p.m., followed by graveside services at Laurel Hill Cemetery, in Havana.