Rose Li, international administrator of Tsinghua journalism school, retires after 15 years with GBJ

Global Business Journalism faculty and staff honor Rose Li at a retirement dinner. From left to right: Lee Miller, Hang Min, Rose Li, Rick Dunham, Li Chengzhang and Zhang Yichen. (GBJ photo)

This tribute was written by Global Business Journalism co-director Rick Dunham.

Li Hongxia delivers a valedictory address to a Tsinghua journalism school faculty meeting on October 19. (GBJ photo by RIck Dunham)

It was the end of an era in the Global Business Journalism Program. Li Hongxia, better known to the Global Business Journalism community as Rose, retired Oct. 19 after 15 years as international administrator of the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication.

Rose was tireless in pursuit of our visas, no matter how fraught bilateral relations were. She took care of everything from housing accommodations to swimming passes, and got me into my apartment when I forgot my keys, usually at inconvenient hours for her.

She never lost her cool, even amid impatient Americans, and was always calm under pressure. When I broke my wrist in a 2014 bicycle mishap, she stayed at my side in two hospitals, through two surgeries, pushed my wheelchair through a driving rain storm, and delivered me, bandaged and bruised, to my apartment at 30 minutes past midnight.

Thanks, Rose, for your service to all of us in the GBJ program and for your humanity that transcends all borders.