Ko Kun-hua arrived at Harvard in 1879. The school’s first Chinese professor, he brought several books that were the beginnings of Harvard-Yenching Library’s extensive Asian-language materials. Though Ko taught Chinese language to only a few students, their fluency and ability to conduct business with Chinese merchants was lauded in Boston newspapers. When Ko succumbed to pneumonia in 1882, a fellow professor remembered him as “a teacher to all who came to know and esteem him.”