Walter Young was a fellow (then called an associate) of the institute in China from 1929 until 1935, a time of upheaval and invasion by Japan. After his fellowship ended in 1935, he served as a professor of Chinese studies at Johns Hopkins University until his death at the age of 37 in 1939. He was previously an assistant professor of international relations at The George Washington University in 1929, a Willard Straight fellow at the Yenching School of Chinese Studies in 1927 and an instructor in the imperial Japanese government school in Yokohama in 1923. His writing on the Far East continues to influence scholars to this day.