The Lee B. Croft Russian Endowment | The Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian & East European Studies

A new chapter in Russian at the CLI

Introducing the Lee B. Croft Russian Program

Endowed in 2026, the Lee B. Croft Russian Program creates a permanent source of support for tuition-free, Russian language instruction through ASU’s Critical Languages Institute.

“People would say, ‘Are you Russian?’ I’d say, ‘No, I’m not Russian. I learned it, and so can you.’”
— Lee B. Croft

Lee B. Croft and Stephen Batalden trace the growth of Russian studies at ASU, the founding of the Critical Languages Institute and the five-year campaign to create an endowment for future students.

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Anyone can learn a language

An improbable start

Lee Croft grew up in Cut Bank, Montana, thirty miles from the Canadian border. He had no Russian background and little reason to imagine that the language would become the work of his life.

His first encounter with Russian was almost incidental. While attending Montana State University, he noticed a student in front of him looking at a Russian book. “I was looking over the shoulder of a coed ahead of me,” he recalled, “and I asked her, ‘What’s that?’” That moment of curiosity led him, like many other students, to a life long passion.

The decisive turn came during his student-teaching assignment at Saguaro High School in Scottsdale in 1969. When the school’s Russian teacher became ill, Croft was asked to take over the classes. The principal explained the problem bluntly: “We can replace a math teacher, but we can’t replace a Russian teacher. You’re it, and we need it.”

Croft discovered that he loved teaching Russian. He went on to complete a master’s degree in Russian at the University of Arizona, earn a doctorate in Slavic and general linguistics at Cornell University, and return to ASU as a professor in 1973. What began with a glimpse of an unfamiliar Cyrillic script became a thirty-eight-year career learning and teaching Russian.

Lee Croft with family members at the Ashley Lake cabin before 1968 — Lee Croft with family members at the Ashley Lake cabin, before 1968.

Tom M., Sister Mary Colleen Dillon and members of the Croft family in Ithaca in 1973 — Tom M., Sister Mary Colleen Dillon and members of the Croft family in Ithaca, 1973.

Lee Croft carrying his three children in Ithaca, New York, in 1971 — Lee Croft with his three children in Ithaca, New York, 1971.

Bill, Jerry and Lee Croft with a tricycle in 1951 — Bill, Jerry and Lee Croft with a tricycle, 1951.

Russian in Arizona

A program with roots in 1946

In his book Russian in Arizona - Croft, Boosman, Lutz, Nielsen and Raymer, Croft reveals a surprising fact, Russian has been taught in what is now Arizona State University since 1946.

Interest in Russian grew after Sputnik, as language study became increasingly connected to science, diplomacy and international affairs. ASU established a bachelor’s degree program in Russian in 1962. When Croft joined the faculty in 1973, he entered a program with deep roots and helped guide its development over the next several decades.

Line chart showing ASU Russian course enrollment and graduations from 1970 through 2000. — ASU Russian course enrollments and recorded graduates, 1970–2000. Course-enrollment figures represent registrations, not unduplicated individual students.

A life in the classroom

Lee B. Croft by the numbers

38 Years teaching at ASU

4,900 Course enrollments

325 Courses taught

35 Introductory sections

$3.1M Estimated tuition value generated

10,000 Estimated total students reached

Note: The figures above are extrapolated to Croft’s 2011 retirement from his detailed 1973–2006 gradebook records, which document 4,382 course enrollments across 289 courses, including 31 sections of RUS 101.

“The history of the teaching of Russian in the State of Arizona, then, does deal with an ‘issue in the History of Science.’ The issue is human potentiation.”
— Lee B. Croft, introduction to Russian in Arizona

Building an institution

From Russian studies to the Critical Languages Institute

As the Cold War ended, there was a growing need to study a wider range of languages from Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Many of those languages attracted only small enrollments, making them difficult to sustain within an ordinary university course.

In 1991, Croft played a central role in founding what became the Critical Languages Institute and served as its first director. The new institute gave less commonly taught and critical languages a home. The tuition-free summer language program was intense, immersive and effective and soon gained a reputation.

Russian only joined the CLI summer curriculum in 2007. Although ASU already taught Russian during the academic year, the summer institute offered an intensive route for students who had begun late, came from other universities or wanted to advance quickly.

1946

Russian instruction begins at what is now Arizona State University.

1957 and after

Sputnik accelerates broader American interest in Russian language study.

1962

ASU establishes a bachelor’s degree program in Russian.

1973

Croft joins ASU’s faculty, beginning a thirty-eight-year teaching career.

1991

Croft helps found the Critical Languages Institute and becomes its first director.

2007

Russian becomes part of the CLI summer curriculum.

2026

The endowed Lee B. Croft Russian Program is established.

Securing the future

The Lee B. Croft Russian Program endowment

A permanent foundation for future students

In 2021, Lee was invited to lend his name to the Critical Languages Institute’s Russian program. However, the honor came with a practical requirement: building a permanent endowment to help preserve the program’s tuition-free model.

The goal was $300,000 in five years. Lee made his own donation, and then invited former students, colleagues, friends and relatives to join him. Through emails, Facebook and LinkedIn, he made the case for preserving Russian language study at ASU.

The endowment grew through gifts from people connected to Lee, the Russian program and the Critical Languages Institute. In an era of declining federal funding, the community recognized the value of Russian language learning and came together to create a permanent source of support for the CLI Russian program.

By early 2026, the campaign had reached $300,000 and the Lee B. Croft Russian Program was formally endowed and established.

Recognizing the donors who made the endowment possible

The Lee B. Croft Russian Program was made possible by former students, colleagues, friends, family members and other supporters.

Sandra and Stephen Batalden
Ronald Birks and Mary Douglas
David Brokaw
Keith Brown and Michelle Stephenson
Elizabeth Carranza
Philip Christensen and Candace Lew
E. Clarke and Susie Crawford
Julie Conway
Lee Croft and Lesley Hoyt-Croft
Shelley and Patrick Cutts
Daffy Charitable Fund
Eric and Wendy Davis
Facebook, Inc.
Rick Florian
Jonathon Hill
Cheryl Kinder
Ralph Kennedy
Peter and Barbara Lafford
Melikian Enterprises LP
Saule Moldabekova Robb
Debby Morgan
Sara and Paul Muriello
Svetlana Pomirchy
Christine and John Puzauskas
Jason Sartor
Danko and Ljiljana Sipka
Matthew Slaboch
James Smrcka
Cindy Strunk
Erin Traeger
Catherine Vontsolos
Valley of the Sun United Way
Nancy Walker
Charles Winkler
Timothy and Elizabeth Wong

Inside Lee's classroom

Language as an entrance into culture

For Lee, learning Russian meant entering its literature, music, history and ways of thinking - not simply acquiring a practical skill.

In his courses, students were required to memorize and personally recite Russian poems to Lee. The class sang Russian songs together. He developed this approach in a book he wrote Russian through Poems and Songs, a teaching method that encouraged students to involve personally with the language bringing together pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, interpretation and performance.

culture, security and geopolitics

Why study Russian?

Political relationships change with shifting geopolitics, but the ability to understand another society through its own language remains invaluable.

Russian is vital to understanding one of the world’s most consequential states. It provides direct access to Russian politics, security thinking, cyber activity, media and public debate—without relying entirely on translation or secondhand interpretation

It also opens major traditions in literature, history, music and thought, and remains widely used across Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Map graphic showing Russia and Ukraine within the surrounding region — Russian language study provides access to communities, histories and institutions across a broad and diverse region.

The next chapter

A program named for a teacher - and built for students

The Lee B. Croft Russian Program honors a professor who helped shape Russian studies at ASU, founded the Critical Languages Institute and taught generations of students.

The endowed program will carry forward his work for future students. Lee began far from Russian language and culture. He encountered the language by chance, learned it and made it the work of a lifetime.

This endowment keeps that same possibility open for future students: that an unfamiliar alphabet, an passing curiosity, a teacher or a single question might launch a life's work.