William L. Hanaway, Jr., emeritus professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, died December 30. He was 89. 

After earning an BA from Amherst and MS, MA and PhD from Columbia, Dr. Hanaway began teaching at Penn in 1971 as an assistant professor of Persian language and literature. In 1976, he was promoted to associate professor. He served as department of Oriental studies chair 1981-1983. He also served as associate director of the Near East Center, 1973-1975.

In 1978, Dr. Hanaway was appointed as one of five Honorary Mellon Fellows in the humanities to work with four selected post-doc fellows on their research. With anthropology professor Brian Spooner, he edited Literacy in the Persianate World: Writing and the Social Order (Penn Press, 2012). He served several times on the Faculty Senate Nominating Committee and the Committee on Open Expression. He served as editor of the journal Edebiyat, a publication of the Middle East Center devoted to Middle Eastern literature. He was a recipient of the internally funded Research Foundation Awards for “Analytical Description of the Tashkent Dialect of Uzbek” in 1992. He retired and earned emeritus status in 1995.

He is survived by his wife, Lorraine; his daughter, Annie C. (Peter); two grandsons, Will and Robin; and brother, Joseph.