Professor Emeritus James Wilkie Passes Away
Professor Emeritus James Wilkie passed away peacefully in his Pacific Palisades home on Friday morning, March 20, at the age of 90.
James Wilkie was born in Idaho and received his BA from Mexico City College and his Ph.D from UC Berkeley. He joined the UCLA History Department in 1968 after teaching at Ohio State University for three years. He retired in 2015 and was Research Professor until 2021. Professor Wilkie was an acclaimed historian of modern Mexico, especially the Mexican Revolution and its fiscal aftermath. He also pioneered an area of the field that he called elitelore, featuring oral interviews with political leaders and government officials from Mexico and many nations throughout Latin America.
Professor Wilkie was also founder and president of two non-profit research and publications foundations: PROFMEX, a worldwide consortium for research on Mexico (since 1988); and HRF (Historical Research Foundation, since 1968). During his long and productive tenure at UCLA, he secured millions of dollars of contracts and grants from private and government foundations, including the California State Legislature and the California Department of Education. And he received many honors for his research on Mexico, including several book prizes and the UNAM Medal from the national university in Mexico.
Professor Wilkie was the longtime editor of the Statistical Abstract of Latin America, published by the UCLA Latin American Center, and he organized many projects as director of the UCLA Program on Mexico. He collaborated on numerous projects and publications with associates and scholars on both sides of the border.
As an avid Mexicanista he was always going to or coming from Mexico City, inviting scholars and students from Mexico to UCLA, and he always wore a white or blue guayabera. Along with Robert Burr, E. Bradford Burns, James Lockhart, and José Moya, Professor Wilkie contributed to establishing the reputation of our Latin American History field as one of the best in the nation, and UCLA as a center for Mexican Studies. May he rest in peace.
