Ken Inadomi ’76 Honors His Mother’s Legacy Through New Fund for the Gilder Lehrman Center
The fund isn't only about remembering the past; it's about preparing future scholars and future leaders to understand how we build a more just society.
Inspired by his mother’s lifelong resilience, Ken Inadomi ’76 and his wife Melinda Wolfe established the Kimi Inadomi Fund in support of the Yale MacMillan Center’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. The endowed fund will advance the Center's research, teaching, and public engagement on issues of slavery, resistance, abolition, and historical memory. For Inadomi, the GLC's mission reflects the pursuit of justice and equality he learned from his mother, Kimi, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday.
Family, education, and service have defined Kimi Inadomi's century of life. Those values were forged in part by her experience at age 16, when she and her family were incarcerated at the Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona during World War II. As one of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans—most of them U.S. citizens—who were unjustly removed from their homes, Kimi endured profound hardship and emerged with a belief that adversity could be transformed into purpose.
My mother always looks at the good that comes out of difficult situations. She considers how you can convert adversity into a challenge, and that challenge becomes an opportunity to do something useful.
For Kimi, resilience was not a single extraordinary act, but the steady determination to keep moving forward each day. That philosophy shaped the way she approached learning and the expectations she set for her family. Together, she and her husband Yosh encouraged their five children to see education as a pathway to opportunity.
Her encouragement was matched by her own commitment to lifelong learning. In 1971, at the age of 46, Kimi earned a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Southern California.
"Her pursuit of higher education reflected a lifelong conviction that consistent effort can overcome even the greatest adversity," Ken said.
Kimi's example left a lasting impression on her son. During a family visit to New Haven in 1965, Ken saw Yale's campus for the first time at just 10 years old.
"Kenny, this is Yale. Look around. You may go to school here someday," Kimi told him.
Inspired by his mother's belief in education, Ken graduated from Yale in 1976. After a successful career in the private sector, he felt called to the nonprofit world in 2008 and went on to found the Yale Alumni Nonprofit Alliance (YANA) in 2010. Today, YANA is a community of more than 8,000 mission-driven alumni united by a shared commitment to service and social impact.
Ken credits Sterling Professor David Blight, the Gilder Lehrman Center's director, with helping bring the vision for the fund to life. After learning more about the Center's work and attending several programs, he realized there was no better place to honor his mother's story.
"David's scholarship, humanity, and unwavering commitment to historical truth gave me tremendous confidence," Ken said. "I knew Mom’s legacy would be in the right hands."
For Ken, supporting the Gilder Lehrman Center is a meaningful way to honor his mother's legacy—not only her perseverance through hardship, but also her determination to transform challenges into opportunities for growth and service.
He hopes the Kimi Inadomi Fund will inspire future generations of scholars to capture and amplify authentic experiences and encourage other individuals and families to support work that advances understanding of resilience, justice, and history.
Additional gifts to the Kimi Inadomi Fund are welcome. To learn more about supporting this work, please contact Kathleen Freis, Director of Development, kathleen.freis@yale.edu.