It is with sadness that we share news that William D. (Woody) Kay died on January 28, 2023 from cancer at the age of 68. At the time of his passing, Woody was an associate professor of political science at Northeastern University, where he taught since 1987.
Woody earned his PhD at Indiana University in 1987. While formally a scholar of organizations, it is safe to say that Woody was intrigued most by innovation and creativity. His two books on the US space program—Can Democracies Fly in Space? (1995) and Defining NASA: The Historical Debate Over the Agency’s Mission (2005)—his stint as a Fulbright scholar in Iceland to study its energy sector, his deep dives into the files of the US Patent Office, and his myriad other intellectual pursuits all had in common a desire to understand how organizations think, innovate, and create. That at his death he was working on a book on the politics of Star Trek pretty much sums up his intellectual reach—seeking to boldly go where no political scientist had gone before.
Woody loved the classroom, and was readying lectures for the Spring semester when he made what became his last trip to the hospital. His teaching interests reflected his intellectual range: organizational theory and bureaucracy, science and technology policy, politics and the arts, politics and film. In recent years he was especially fascinated by how Americans through history portrayed their presidents in both high and popular culture, with insightful comparisons to socialist realism. His courses were peppered with examples from Italian opera, obscure Russian films, Marvel Comics, and, of course, Star Trek (all versions), and never tired of spending office hours with any student who shared any of these interests. And he was a font of (frequently awful) puns, regularly tried out on his always-game colleagues.
Most of all, Woody loved his wife and soulmate Jennifer Davis-Kay, daughter Melanie, and son Will, a tight-knit and rollicking family unit if there ever was one. He gave much to his family, friends, community, and Northeastern University. Our hallways seem empty without his glee.
