Collection: John H. Cheek Collection

Content and Scope Notes

This collection is composed of one Hollinger box, containing five folders and one book, and one 11x14 Oversize Box. The first box primarily contains notes in the Japanese writing systems of Kana and Kanji. Researchers will also find correspondence from John Cheek to H.P. Scott, regarding Cheek’s English ancestors, and a copy of Vanderbilt’s 1983 Commencement program. Finally a copy of Cheek’s Ph.D. thesis from Harvard University, A Distinctive Feature Phonematic Analysis of Lower Sorbian, is contained within.

The oversize Box contains Cheek’s notes on the First Summer Institute in Chinese Civilization, geography, and Tai Chi Ch’uan as well as a photograph of his son John H. Cheek, III, as a boy. Additionally, researchers will find copies and a cover of magazines detailing the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 moon landings.

Dates

Undated

Language of Materials

English

Biographical Notes

John Hancock Cheek, Jr. was the son of John Hancock Cheek, Sr. and Susan E. Glenn Cheek. He was born June 26, 1924. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1950, and his M.A.(1956) and Ph.D.(1959) from Harvard University. He came to Vanderbilt University in 1958 as a teacher of Russian. Cheek helped establish the Russian language program at Vanderbilt. He was a professor of Russian, Chinese, and Linguistics at Vanderbilt’s Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages. In 1983 he was awarded the title “Emeritus” by the Board of Trust. He died at his home February 20, 2002.