Ping-ti Ho was born in Tianjin in 1917. After studying at Tsinghua University’s Department of History, he went to Shanghai to study at Kwang Hua University. He received a scholarship in 1944 that allowed him to travel to the United States in 1945.
In 1952 Ping-ti Ho received his PhD from Columbia University in history. He began his career studying European history, before shifting his focus to the demographics and social history of imperial China, and, later, ancient Chinese culture.
Ho received numerous honors throughout his distinguished career. He was elected to the Academia Sinica in 1966 and the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences in 1979. He also served as president of the Association for Asian Studies from 1975 to 1976 and vice president of the National Association of Chinese
Americans from 1977 to 1980.
Ho received honorary degrees from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Lawrence University and Denison University and honorary membership in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
He began teaching at the University of Chicago in 1965, and two years later was promoted to the James Westfall Thompson Professor of History.
After retiring in 1987 from the University of Chicago, Ping-ti Ho became a Visiting Distinguished Professor of History at UC Irvine, where he worked until he retired for a second time in 1990.
Involvement at UC Irvine
“In planning for the new Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at UCI in 1989, a top priority was securing support for the East Asian Library [Collection]. There were a lot of other tasks to be accomplished—establishing the department itself, its undergraduate major, and its graduate program; securing FTE and hiring new faculty; facilitating research opportunities for faculty; gaining access to development support, etc.—but it was clear that without on-campus access to library resources none of the programmatic goals could be achieved.
I was told that the campus had purchased a 12,000-volume Chinese collection from a private source in the People’s Republic of China (this may have been brokered by Visiting Professor Ping-ti Ho, but I’m not certain of that), but there were no staff capable of processing it or any funds for further acquisitions.”
Pauline Yu
Founding Chair, East Asian Languages and Literatures
UCI Librarian Calvin Boyer’s letter to Academic Sinica president Dr. Ta-You Wu in 1990 (Courtesy of the East Asian Collection at UCI library)
爾灣加大圖書館前館長 Calvin J. Boyer 在 1990 年寫給中研院吳院長的一封信中提到何教授懇請中研院提供多項研究書籍給爾灣加大
何炳棣一生治學嚴謹，是海內外知名的學者。1917 年出生於天津，1938 年國立清華大學歷史系畢業，對日抗戰時執教於西南聯大，後通過考試，赴美留學。在美國哥倫比亞大學取得歷史學博士，曾先後任教於加拿大哥倫比亞大學及美國芝加哥大學。他認為具有研讀西洋史的背景，令他在面對問題時總以中、西方不同的角度來觀察，而得到獨特的論點。爾灣加大東亞語文學系創系系主任余寶琳將何教授在學術、人文及對社區的貢獻，取其重點介紹如下：
1966 年當選為中央研究院院士，
1979 年當選為美國人文與科學院院士，
1975 年至 1976 年擔任亞洲研究協會主席，
1977 年至 1980 年擔任美國華裔美國人協會副主席。
他獲有香港中文大學、勞倫斯大學和丹尼森大學的榮譽學位，並是中國社會科學院的榮譽會員。1987 年從芝加哥大學退休後，他成為加州大學爾灣分校的歷史系訪問教授，一直工作到 1990 年第二次退休。何教授曾在 1989 年參與 UCI 創立東亞語文系之規劃，爾灣加大東亞語文學系首任系主任余寶琳指出，爾灣加大可能是透過何教授的介紹，向中國一位私人收藏家採購 12,000 冊東亞語文相關書籍。
何教授對爾灣加大的培植盡心盡力，由爾灣加大圖書館前館長 Calvin J. Boyer 在 1990 年寫給中研院吳院長的一封信中提到何教授懇請中研院提供多項研究書籍給爾灣加大，可見一斑。
何教授在 2012 年安詳離世，他的兒子 Sidney Ho在追思會上陳述他對父親的敬佩：「父親的一生，豐富又有成就。他有超人的記憶力，又維持著洞悉一切及無窮的能量去分析、整理資訊。」他提到何教授在他的病床上仍在監督、傳送和編輯他的最後一部作品《無可辯駁的證明：老子跟隨孔子、孟子》，終於在他去世前不久完成。
在兒子的眼中，何教授熱愛生命，凡事無不盡其全力。即使居家生活也過得興味盎然。「父親把他的智慧、勤奮和動力集中在他所有的活動，將好奇心發揮到極致，如同一位非凡的 95 歲年輕人。」（黃少華翻譯、整理）