Leigh Bristol-Kagan, whose towering intellect and uncompromising nature were constants throughout a life dedicated to social justice that included early days with Martin Luther King Jr., academic excellence in Asian history, leadership in the anti-Vietnam War movement and assisting refugees to resettle in the United States, died on Feb. 28, 2024 at a long-term care center in Maplewood, MN. She was 84.

Leigh's work spanned many of the most dynamic and pressing issues of her era. She was a scholar and professor of Asian history. She spoke Chinese and Japanese, led trips to communist China and joined with colleagues to oppose U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. She changed careers in mid-life, and became a licensed clinical social worker, helping resettle refugees and asylees who came to the Twin Cities from Laos, Eritrea, Somalia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

Born Dorothy Leigh Bristol in Camden, NJ on Feb. 10, 1940, she grew up in Philadelphia, where she attended Germantown Friends School. She later won a scholarship to Smith College and went on to study at University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University, where she earned a PhD. Her parents, James "Jim" E. and Dorothy "Dee" (Miller) Bristol were Quakers, and her father was a pacifist who was a leader in the conscientious objector movement and the U.S. Civil Rights movement. Her mother ran the switchboard at Germantown Friends School. Leigh had a younger sister, Christina. The Bristols lived in India in the 1950s on a posting with the American Friends Service Committee. During that time, Jim organized Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1959 visit to India, and the two families stayed in touch thereafter. Leigh married fellow Asia scholar Richard C. Kagan in 1962. They had a daughter, Rachael Mei Kagan in 1965 and adopted a son, Jacob Ben Kagan, in 1970. With a job offer to teach at Hamline University, the family settled in St. Paul in 1973.

As a professor, Leigh inspired and captivated many students, colleagues and everyday people. She was always up for a lively political conversation -- at a restaurant, on the bus, at a parent-teacher conference, in a department meeting or from the lectern. She did not suffer fools and didn't mind making a scene. She loved to swear, had a loud laugh and an even louder sneeze.

Leigh's life encompassed complexity and contradiction. Despite struggles with depression and anxiety, owing to childhood trauma, she continued to challenge herself and others to make a difference, even when things didn't go as planned. After her divorce in 1982, finding herself without a teaching position, she took a job working for a house cleaning service. Soon, she turned to social work, assisting international refugees. Her second career took her to Lutheran Social Service, the Center for Victims of Torture, and then United Hospital, where she retired in 2008.

Leigh found her way back to religion in the second half of her life. Though she was raised in a religious home, she rejected that as a young woman and did not observe any faith during her marriage and child-rearing years. Leigh returned to the church on her own terms as a member of St. Paul's on-the-Hill Anglican Church, then the Episcopal Order of Julian of Norwich and finally at St. Anne's Episcopal Church. There she contributed a scholarly approach to Bible study and shared the conviction that religion is a source of justice and humanity, and a deliverer of peace, qualities she sought all her life.

Leigh is survived by her daughter Rachael and son Jacob "Jake," grandson Henry Kagan Rowe, son-in-law Tim Rowe, sister Christina Bristol and niece Tara Mullaney.

Donations in Leigh Bristol-Kagan's memory can be made to the Center for Victims of Torture in St. Paul or St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Sunfish Lake.

Published on May 5, 2024