John Tsu, 80; Professor Worked on Promoting Asians in Public Service

John Tsu, 80, the China-born political science professor and former chairman of President Bush’s Advisory Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islanders, died Saturday in a hospital in Daly City, Calif., of unspecified causes.

Born Dec. 1, 1924, in rural China, Tsu earned a law degree from the University of Tokyo in 1946, and then moved to the U.S., where he earned a master’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University in 1949, and five years later, a doctorate in political science from Fordham University.

Tsu taught at Duquesne University, Seton Hall University and the University of San Francisco before becoming a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institute at Stanford. In 1989, he joined the faculty of the John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, Calif., as director of its Asia-Pacific Institute.

The educator had worked with Bush and his father, President George H.W. Bush, to promote Asians in government service for more than 30 years. Tsu also served on the Education Commission of the States and headed the International Leadership Foundation, which provides scholarships to Asian Americans in public service and international affairs.