About Franklin Odo

Franklin S. Odo (May 6, 1939 – September 28, 2022) was a Japanese American author, scholar, activist, and historian. Odo served as the director of the Asian Pacific American Program at the Smithsonian Institution from the program's inception in 1997 until his retirement in 2010. As the director of the APA Program, Odo brought numerous exhibits to the Smithsonian highlighting the experiences of Chinese Americans, Native Hawaiians, Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans, and Indian Americans. He was the first Asian Pacific American curator at the National Museum of American History. He taught American Studies at Amherst College until his death