Kenneth Perry Landon (27 March 1903 Meadville, Pennsylvania – 26 August 1993 Arlington, Virginia) was a government and academic specialist on Thailand. He and his wife, Margaret Landon, were Presbyterian missionaries in southern Thailand from 1927 to 1937. At the start of America's participation in World War Two, he was called to Washington to become a State Department specialist on Thailand. After the war, he became an academic promoter of the study of Thailand. He was the husband of Margaret Landon, who was best known for writing Anna and the King of Siam. Early life and career Landon was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He studied at Wheaton College and served as a Presbyterian missionary in Thailand from 1927 to 1937. They returned, and he received a master's degree and doctorate in comparative religion from the University of Chicago. He taught philosophy and psychology at Earlham College, a Quaker institution. While at Earlham, he taught what was probably the first undergraduate course in Chinese philosophy and published several monographs, including Siam in Transition and The Chinese in Thailand, before joining a predecessor office of the Office of Strategic Services in Washington on the eve of World War Two, during which he also worked for the Board of Economic Warfare. After the war, Landon served as associate dean of the School of Language and Area Studies at the Foreign Service Institute and was on the Operations Coordinating Board of the National Security Council. He then served as director of the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies at American University until his retirement in 1974. He died of cancer in 1993. References "Kenneth Perry Landon, Specialist On Asia, Dies," Washington Post 27 August, 1993 Landon Archival Collection Wheaton College. * Margaret and Kenneth Landon Papers (SC-38), Wheaton College Special Collections, Wheaton, Illinois Notes External links Interview with Kenneth P. Landon 1903 births 1993 deaths American Presbyterian missionaries Presbyterian missionaries in Thailand Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni American foreign policy writers American male non-fiction writers Thai studies scholars University of Chicago alumni Earlham College faculty American University faculty and staff United States National Security Council staffers People from Meadville, Pennsylvania Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C. American expatriates in Thailand People of the Office of Strategic Services