Neil Englehart, a political science professor and department chairman at Bowling Green State University respected as a scholar of Asia, but also of failed states and human rights, and as a teacher who guided students in research, died Saturday in St. Luke’s Hospital, Maumee. He was 55.

He had a heart attack April 28 and died from complications that followed, which were unrelated to coronavirus, said his wife, Melissa Miller, also on the BGSU political science faculty.

He was a gentle giant, she said — “a giant in terms of intellect, a giant in terms of being so fit and strong.

“I’ve never known anybody so intellectually curious. I’ve never known anyone so embracing of other cultures and people as Neil,” his wife said. “It was ingrained as part of him, the generosity of spirit. He instilled that in our sons, and I see that in them.”

BGSU President Rodney Rogers announced Mr. Englehart’s death Monday in a letter to students, faculty, and staff, noting Professor Englehart’s international renown as an expert on comparative politics and international relations and his service as a leader on college and university committees and, since 2011, as department chairman.

“He was a teacher known for his interrogative teaching style that encouraged his students to think critically,” Mr. Rogers wrote.

Marc Simon, political science chairman in 2005 when Mr. Englehart was hired, said, “He was unbiased and asked penetrating questions and got students to think about things from different perspectives.

“He had a calm, serious demeanor and conveyed a lot of care to students,” said Mr. Simon, an associate professor of political science.

For one course, after the foundation was set, Mr. Englehart and the students collaborated on how the rest of the semester would proceed, his wife said.

“That takes guts, I say that as a professor myself,” she added.

Mr. Englehart engaged undergraduates in conducting original research and data collection as well.

“He would take students under his wing and show them how to gather this information, which is not easy,” Mr. Simon said. “He was treating them as colleagues. The confidence he gave them made them up their game as well. It gave them skills that were useful, whether they went to graduate school or not.

“As a scholar, what I like about him is he cared about the ideas,” Mr. Simon said. “That is the true scholarship that is valued in the academy. He didn’t have a political ax to grind. He was trying to find answers.”

Mr. Englehart’s research took him to East and Southeast Asia, including Thailand — which he first visited as an undergraduate — North and South Korea, China, India, Myanmar, and Japan.

“He was a classic combination of a teacher and scholar who integrated his research and brought it into the classroom and enlightened our students that way,” Mr. Simon said.

Mr. Englehart and his wife collaborated on scholarly articles about international women’s rights, and he published in journals. His books included Sovereignty, State Failure and Human Rights: Petty Despots and Exemplary Villains, and Culture and Power in Traditional Siamese Government, the topic of his doctoral dissertation.

Mr. Englehart also wrote for such publications as the Christian Science Monitor and Dissent and gave talks at Wood County Senior Center and Way Public Library.

As department chairman, he was fair, supportive, and played no favorites, Mr. Simon said.

He liked outdoors pursuits and, as his then-young sons learned to ice skate, he pursued adult lessons at BGSU so they could take to the ice together. He learned to make mead and had been teaching himself Old English. He could prepare bibimbap, a Korean dish, and French-inspired salmon en croute.

“Even the cooking I think stemmed from his intellectual curiosity and appreciation of other cultures,” his wife said. “His whole life, he was always wanting to learn. He never believed he couldn’t do anything.”

He was born May 6, 1964, in Buffalo, to Joy Colleen and Bruce Englehart and grew up in Fayetteville, N.Y., near Syracuse. He was a graduate of Fayetteville-Malinus High School.

He received a bachelor of arts degree in history and East Asian Studies from Oberlin College. He received a master’s degree and doctorate in political science from the University of California-San Diego. From 1998-2005, he was an assistant professor of government and law at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.

Surviving are his wife, Melissa Kary Miller, whom he married Dec. 21, 1996; sons Nathan Miller Englehart and Andy Carl Englehart; mother, Joy Colleen Englehart, and brother Alec Bruce Englehart.

A memorial service will be held after the coronavirus pandemic. Arrangements are by Witzler-Shank Funeral Home, Perrysburg.

The family suggests tributes to Zoar Lutheran Church, where he’d been president of the church council, or the American Red Cross.

First Published May 7, 2020, 4:00 a.m.