The abdication of Emperor Akihito at the end of this month has been momentous news over there because it is nearly unprecedented – the last time it happened was two centuries ago. The following day, there is the ascension of Naruhito to succeed him. The country will have a historic 10-day Golden Week holiday (from April 27th to May 6th) for the celebrations.
As a native of Japan and University Archivist of the UM, this is a great time for me to inform the University community that Emperor Akihito visited the University of Miami twice in the past because of the long-lasting friendship of then Crown Prince Akihito and Dr. C. Richard Robins, who was a professor at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
At first, I found out that Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko visited the University in May 1967 while processing the UM Historical Photograph Collection during 2007-2008 academic year. Several years later, I was able to search the digitized Office of the President Records and Veritas to find out about the friendship between the two ichthyologists.
Below, I would like to share with the readers a few samples of the historical images and documents available on the subject.
[Crown Prince of Japan at Marine Lab, May 1967. Source: UM Historical Photograph Collection]
[Source: Annual Report 1966-67, Institute of Marine Science, University of Miami]
[Source: Veritas, October 9, 1978]
[Source: UM Office of the President Records]
Dr. Robins was hired in 1956 as a Research Assistant Professor and later promoted to Associate Professor (1960) and then to Professor (1964). Administratively, Dr. Robins chaired the Department of Marine Science in 1961–1963 and the Division of Biology and Living Resources in 1978–1983. He served as Acting Dean of the school in 1981 (Courtenay and Robins, 1997). The University of Miami Marine Laboratory became the Institute of Marine Science in 1961 and later the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in 1969.
[Dr. Richard Robins, Professor of Biology and Living Resources and ichthyology, seated at his desk. Source: RSMAS Alumni Association Scrapbook]
University of Miami Archives -- Let's Archive It 