Yasuko Nakanishi Whitman, senior lecturer in the Department of Asian Studies at Cornell, died Aug. 4 at her home in Ithaca. She was 53.

Nakanishi was born in 1952 in Shigaraki, Shiga prefecture, Japan. She graduated from Tamagawa University in 1975 and in 1977 met her future husband, Cornell professor of linguistics John Whitman, in Japan. In 1980 the couple came to the United States, and Nakanishi taught Japanese in the Belmont and Winchester, Mass., public schools. In 1987 the Whitman family moved to Ithaca, and in 1988 Nakanishi began teaching Japanese in Cornell's Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. She became a lecturer in 1991 and in 2000 advanced to senior lecturer in Asian studies. Nakanishi was awarded Cornell's Clark Distinguished Teaching Award in 2000.

Nakanishi is survived by her husband, John; and her sons, Arthur of Ithaca, and Noah of San Francisco, among other family members. A funeral was held Aug. 11, and a memorial service will be held at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 20, in the A.D. White House on the Cornell campus. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Yasuko Nakanishi Japanese Language Studies Fund, Cornell University, c/o Catheryn Obern, Cornell Alumni Affairs and Development, 130 E. Seneca St., Suite 440, Ithaca, NY 14850.