In Memory of Joseph Schwartzberg

Joseph E. Schwartzberg died on September 19, 2018. Joe grew up in Depression era Brooklyn, where his family owned a small clothing store. He attended Brooklyn College, graduating Cum Laude in 1949. Shortly thereafter, he accepted a position with the U.S. Army Map Service, while at the same time earning his M.A. from the University of Maryland. During this time Joe first became aware of the World Federalist movement, a concept that would run through the rest of his life. In 1950 Joe was drafted into the Army. He served in Germany in a topographic engineering battalion, and was discharged in 1952 as a 1st Lieutenant. He then began several years of foreign travel and residence, including time in Spain, Paris, Israel, North Africa, the Middle East, India, other countries of South and Southeast Asia, and Japan. Joe earned a PhD in geography from the University of Wisconsin in 1960 and then accepted a teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1962, he led the first group of Peace Corps volunteers to be sent to Sri Lanka. He then spent a year in India as a Fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies. In 1964, Joe was invited to take a teaching position at the University of Minnesota's Geography Dept. and to lead a project to create a Historical Atlas of South Asia as chief editor. It was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1978. Oxford University Press issued an updated edition in 1992. This major work won the Watumull Prize of the American Historical Association, as the best work on Indian history in 1979; and an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Association. of American Geographers. Then Joe joined the History of Cartography project as the associate editor and principal author of two volumes: one on South Asia and the Islamic World; the other on East Asia, Southeast Asia and Greater Tibet. During the 1990s, he wrote extensively on Kashmir, focusing on promoting a peaceful resolution of the multi-partite disputes over that region. Along with writing, he taught thousands of students in a variety of courses in the field of geography. Joe was also active in the public arena, serving in various capacities in the Minnesota Chapter of the World Federalist Assn. (later Citizens for Global Solutions) including 14 years as President. Following his formal retirement in 2000, he focused more heavily on issues of global governance. His book Transforming the United Nations System: Designs for a Workable World, published by the United Nations University Press in 2013, is a summation of his lifelong study. In December 2014, Joe established The Workable World Trust, the principal purpose of which is to disseminate and promote the many global governance proposals in his book. In his last years, Joe put most of his efforts into this organization, working until only a few weeks prior to his death. In a non-academic vein, Joe gained a touch of notoriety for his remarkable doodles, hundreds of which were created during staff meetings and conferences. (n. d.)