In Memoriam

Eugene (Gene) Alpert

The political science community lost a visionary leader and dedicated advocate for student experiential learning with the recent passing of Dr. Eugene (Gene) Alpert. Gene received his PhD from Michigan State University in 1977 and was on the faculty at Texas Christian University for 17 years. He served as TCU’s Department Chair, directed its Washington Internship Program and graduate programs, and led the university’s reaccreditation process. In 1993, Gene joined The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars as its Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. For 20 years, Gene oversaw The Washington Center’s academic programming, working with faculty, campus directors, and partners to expand its high-impact offerings. Since 1984, over 2,500 students and faculty have participated in the signature national party convention program Gene developed—the only experiential academic program of its kind. He was an early-adopter of online learning methods to increase student access, partnering with C-SPAN to provide distance learning opportunities. In his tenure at the Washington Center, he brought public service role models to speak with students though the Alan K. Simpson-Norman Y. Mineta Leaders Series. Gene’s professional service to experiential education was vast and included working with the National Collegiate Honors Council as its Senior Associate for Strategic Initiatives. For his significant achievements in experiential education, Gene was recently named a distinguished scholar by the National Society of Experiential Education (NSEE). For 17 years, Gene represented the NSEE on the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education by appointment, helping write the internship standards the Council adopted in 2006.

Joining as a student in 1969, Gene held the distinction of being the longest continuously serving member of the American Political Science Association and its Political Science Education section. As an associate professor, Gene was named a 1982 APSA Congressional Fellow, where he served in leadership offices of both chambers. For the remainder of his career, Gene was an invaluable and visible support for the APSA Congressional Fellowship Program (CFP). Former CFP Director Jeff Biggs noted, “I can’t recall an important CFP event at which Gene was not present. He spent almost an entire lifetime devoted to assisting younger people, both US and non-US, better understand the complexities of a democratic civil society.” As testament to Gene’s 45-year commitment to teaching and experiential education, the program he developed for the Osgood Center for International Studies where he worked for the past five years, now bears his name: The Gene Alpert Inauguration Program. Across his career, Gene remained at the forefront of higher education trends that could expand experiential learning access for students interested in government, public policy, electoral politics, and international affairs. His last initiative, still in process, involved developing DC experiential learning communities for HBCU students.

In recent years, Gene brought DC internship program directors together to develop best practices for student experiential learning as part of the Washington Program Consortium (WPC). Gene was truly the father of the WPC. Well known in the community of Washington, DC semester programs, as well as in the world of experiential education, Gene led the effort to re-establish the consortium which today counts 145 institutions and other higher education-focused groups among its membership. Thanks to his leadership, the WPC became a forum for sharing important concerns and ideas particular to this segment of higher education. This proved to be especially true during the outbreak of COVID-19. The weekly Zoom sessions Gene coordinated became a lifeline for WPC institutions, ensuring the best possible learning experience for students during challenging times.

Under Gene’s direction, the work of the WPC expanded to include committees such as the Student Life Committee, which created numerous opportunities for students in the many DC intern programs to interact with each other through various activities and events. In addition, Gene introduced an important professional development component to the work of the consortium by organizing Experiential Education Academy sessions sponsored by the NSEE. These programs helped WPC members expand their knowledge and professional networks. One of Gene’s most important legacies is developing the talents of younger professionals by involving them in the work of the WPC, preparing the next generation of leadership.

Gene Alpert’s passion for student learning shaped the field of experiential education, its role in the political science curriculum, and its value to the discipline. Those who worked with Gene greatly appreciated the depth of his experience in higher education, his commitment to students and his mentorship to professionals who shared his belief in the value of experiential learning. Gene Alpert will be remembered for his kind and generous spirit, continuing to inspire those who knew him as a colleague, mentor and friend.

—Janna Deitz, Library of Congress, The John W. Kluge Center; 2011–2012 APSA Congressional Fellow

—Douglas E. Clark, Lutheran College Washington Semester, Washington Program Consortium

Michael Wayne Hail

Dr. Michael W. Hail, for many years professor of political science at Morehead State University, died Thursday, August 6, 2020 at the age of 53. He is survived by his mother, wife, daughter, and son.

In a life ended so bitterly soon, Mike packed his life full of activity. Born and raised in Somerset, Kentucky, he earned his undergraduate degree from Centre College and his master’s degree from Eastern Kentucky University. He earned a PhD in political science at the University of Delaware and taught in the political science department at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro before returning to the Commonwealth of Kentucky to complete his career. Mike joined Morehead State University in 2000 to become Director of Research and Assistant Dean of the newly created Program of Distinction, the Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy (IRAPP). Mike later served as dean and chair of IRAPP. He directed both the government and MPA graduate programs, the latter of which he was proud to have founded. A consummate networker, he developed relationships with universities and organizations far and wide. In the way of example, Mike worked with the University of Kentucky’s Martin School of Public Policy as the associate director of the Institute for Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations (IFIR) from 2004 onward. He founded, directed, and obtained external funding for the MSU Statesmanship Center, and the MSU Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence. He was an accomplished researcher and grantwriter, obtaining over $40 million in federal funding over his distinguished career. He proposed and received grants to fund research and community development from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Homeland Security, Defense Intelligence Agency, Rural Telecommunications Policy Institute, Small Business Administration, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). His work resulted in sufficient federal, state, and local dollars to initiate the Morehead State University Space Science Center.

In this 20 years of service at Morehead, Mike was constantly involved in administrative, teaching, and service activities. Mike was instrumental in the creation of the Master’s of Public Administration degree at Morehead State, and was proud to have recruited, taught, and mentored MPA students through to placement in doctoral programs and professional careers.

Mike won Morehead State University awards for both teaching and research. He was appointed to the Truman Scholarship committee by President Obama and reappointed by President Trump. He consistently turned out journal articles, books, and book chapters, as well as taking leadership roles in various scholarly organizations. Mike’s research was generally devoted to the topics of federalism, the political thought of America’s founders, and state government, in particular Kentucky government. He coedited the first scholarly book on Kentucky politics published in a generation. Mike held leadership roles with APSA’s Section on Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations, the American Society for Public Administration’s Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management, and served as president and secretary-treasurer of the Kentucky Political Science Association. He served most recently as associate editor for Public Administration Review, editor of the Commonwealth Review of Political Science, and The Federalism Report, and served as an editorial board member for Publius: The Journal of Federalism.

Mike never completely left his hometown of Somerset, KY, stubbornly choosing to commute the 2.5 hours each way. He drove hours each day from his home in south-central Kentucky to teach and advise students in the heart of Appalachian Kentucky. As the obligations caused by Mike’s dedication to public service continued to grow, these trips were increasingly burdensome. In his last years, Mike served as board member and ultimately president of the Somerset-Pulaski County Development Foundation, member and ultimately chairman of the Somerset Independent School Board of Education, and a member of the Somerset Housing Authority Board. While driving, Mike was often talking on his cell phone, discussing research projects or conducting university business. Many times the phone call would be interrupted as Mike drove through an area with bad cell service, only to resume the call again shortly thereafter. Mike was always involved in the civic affairs of his community. He was an active member of St. Patrick Episcopal Church, and served on the Vestry and other committees in the church. His final contribution to the legacy of his commitment to education and to his hometown, was the formation of the University of Somerset, for which he served as founding president. Sadly, his passing preceded the public announcement of the institution he labored so diligently to establish.

Mike was a man of gracious habits who had strong opinions but was nevertheless able to get along with people of conflicting views. He lived for elections, and while he clearly rooted for one side, he approached them from an analytic and explanatory perspective as one would expect from a political science faculty member. He was known as a man who could unite divided groups of people to work for a common cause.

Mike enjoyed birdwatching, spending time with his dog, and bouncing ideas off his friends on late night drives around town with fresh Coca-Cola from the local Hardees; to say he enjoyed any of these things more than a conversation about political philosophy would be a stretch. Mike was an avid reader, and owned a collection of books and monographs that would compete with many libraries. He took great pride in his children, and enjoyed the success they were finding in life. No lover of cats, he expressed grief on the occasion one would infiltrate the perimeter of his yard.

Because he wore multiple administrative hats, he had multiple offices in multiple buildings on the Morehead campus. Since he kept so incredibly busy, Mike was notoriously late to meetings, appointments, and even classes. It is ironic that his early departure from this earthly walk was so untimely and premature. He left so many projects unfinished. His family, friends, colleagues, and students miss him sorely, and will continue to do so, but we are all the better for having known him and shared even a brief time in his company.

—James Clinger, Murray State University

—Jeremy L. Hall, University of Central Florida

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson was the Kevin P. Reilly, Sr. Chair in Political Communication, Dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication, and professor of political science at Louisiana State University. He was previously professor and chair of political science at the University of California, Riverside. Martin received his MA and PhD in 2002 from Rice University, and his BA in journalism in 1991 from the LSU Manship School. He passed away unexpectedly on September 29, 2020 at the age of 50.

The statement of those steps in his career do little to convey a sense of our friend and colleague who meant so much to so many. Martin’s collaborative nature was at the core of who he was, both as a scholar and as a leader at his universities and in the discipline. We are conscious that this In Memoriam represents the expression of very many people. As close friends of Martin, we have taken the initiative to write this In Memoriam, but it should be said that we could have invited many more people to join us in this task. Martin was especially collaborative and generous to all those around him. He touched so many people’s lives for the better. Yet it must fall to a small group of people to write something like this. Martin loved democratic institutions and their ability to express collective thoughts and feelings through representative mechanisms. We see ourselves as merely a committee that represents all of the people whom Martin touched. Of all people, he would appreciate the fact that a committee of his friends consulting with many others is the way his memorial would be written.

Martin was an accomplished and prolific scholar, publishing over 30 journal articles, chapters, and a well-received book. As a testament to his collaborative nature, he published research with 40 different scholars over his all-too-brief career. A polymath, Martin also published broadly and his work has advanced a wide range of fields, from political communication, to political psychology, media studies, and state politics and policy. And, that’s just his published work. As Martin liked to point out in his amiable self-effacing way, he also had a tenurable record of unpublished work—a true reflection of his active mind and broad intellectual curiosity.

When considering a stellar academic record like Martin’s, it is hard to single out specific areas of work as the ones most likely to have a particularly strong and long-lasting impact on a sub-field or discipline. Nevertheless, if asked to make such a choice, many people would undoubtedly point to his research on media choice. This research, conducted with Vin Arceneaux (also a collaborator on this In Memoriam, but not this section), began with a series of studies funded by the NSF, and is featured most prominently in their 2013 book, Changing Minds and Changing Channels? Partisan News in an Age of Choice (University of Chicago Press, 2013).

This line of research made a theoretically informed methodological critique of the at-the-time-burgeoning body of experimentally-based work on selective media exposure, which argued that expanded media choice beyond the main broadcast networks allowed for partisan-based media selections (partisan selective exposure), with potentially polarizing effects. Much of this existing work often failed to adequately consider that partisan media selections are just as likely to be a consequence of polarization as they are a cause of it, and that the expansion of choice also included the expansion of entertainment, providing alternative content to news for those seeking to avoid it.

The existing selective exposure studies routinely focused on demonstrating the effects of exposure to partisan news after randomizing participants into conditions of left-leaning, neutral, and right leaning news, regardless of any news interest. The gist of the critique in Changing Minds was that these designs are not reflective of the true high choice media environment, which in reality would allow people with a relative preference for entertainment over news to avoid it in favor of countless entertainment programming options. Martin and Vin argued instead for the need to incorporate both choice and preference (for news vs. entertainment) into studies of the effects of media choice and exposure to partisan news. To demonstrate, they incorporated a participant-preference experimental design and expanded choice to include entertainment options, the results of which revealed that forced-choice designs were overestimating the impact of partisan news on the public.

The use of this methodology in the context of news consumption was groundbreaking and underscored the importance of bringing both a deep understanding of design and of psychology into the study of communication. The book received the prestigious Goldsmith Book Prize from Harvard Kennedy School’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Papers from this line of research also earned the Paul Lazarsfeld Best Paper Award from APSA’s Political Communication Section in 2011; the Pi Sigma Alpha Best Paper Award from the Southwestern Political Science Association in 2011; and one was a finalist for the Frank Luther Mott—Kappa Tau Alpha Journalism & Mass Communication Research Award in 2014.

Changing Minds and associated articles and chapters in edited volumes had an almost immediate impact on political communication as a subfield. The (not-Vin) author of this section recalls recounting to Martin that shortly after the book’s release, all the papers in selective exposure and polarization panels were suddenly talking about the ills of “forced-choice design,” which she adamantly maintained (and still maintains) was a phrase never uttered before. While always humble about the effects of this work on the discipline, his political communication colleagues often called on him to visit their classrooms when they assigned students his book and related papers. In fact, many cohorts of students lovingly called Martin, “Choice Man!”

Martin’s research also made several important contributions to the study of state politics. He was at the forefront of efforts in the early 2000s to measure public opinion at the state level and study its dynamics. In doing so, he helped provide the field of state politics with a broader set of public opinion measures and illustrated the ways in which public opinion does (and does not) shape state-level public policy. He also made several strides in integrating the study of the media with state politics. He and his coauthors deftly combined quantitative data and qualitative interviews with journalists to better understand the ways in which news is constructed at the local level, which has long been an overlooked topic in political science. His research taught us the importance of local media in connecting citizens’ views to local and state policymaking as well as its central role in educating voters about local issues.

As further testament to Martin’s broad intellectual interests, and contributions to disparate areas of knowledge, Martin helped integrate insights from behavioral genetics into the study of political communication and social identity. His research went beyond illustrating the correlation between political attitudes, behaviors, and genetics. He demonstrated the ways in which social context structures and constrains the expression of behavioral predispositions.

Martin selflessly and tirelessly dedicated much of himself to building institutions to make our discipline better and more inclusive. His instinct always was to contribute to the collective good—even when those around him did not match his example. Martin’s leadership is reflected in his distinguished record of professional service. Among the many leadership roles in his professional life, he served as president of the Southwestern Political Science Association from 2012 to 2013, a professional association he was fond of and felt strongly about supporting. Before becoming president, he served as vice president and program chair from 2008–2009. Before that, he served on the association’s executive council and editorial policies committees for several years. He also chaired the association’s best graduate student paper award committee in 2015.

Martin began his career as an assistant professor at UCR in 2002. As is true of many departments, UCR’s political science department had just previously experienced a period of conflict and contraction. Martin was part of a cohort of junior faculty who arrived in the early 2000s who became close friends inside the department and out. Even as a new assistant professor, Martin’s nature as an institution-builder and exemplar of a good departmental citizen was immediately apparent and it is no exaggeration to say that he contributed to the collective good of the department on a daily basis throughout his time at UCR.

His office door was always open and he was genuinely welcoming of conversation with everyone. Throughout his time at UCR, graduate students sought out Martin as a mentor and major professor, and he supervised graduate students on dissertation topics as diverse as survey methodology, direct democracy, affordable housing, elite rhetoric, opinion response to political scandals, Spanish-language media and politics, attitudes toward gay marriage, and the effect of criminal punishment on political engagement, among others. Many of his graduate students are now tenured professors.

Martin advanced through the ranks at UCR, eventually becoming full professor, graduate advisor, and department chair. Martin gave to the university in innumerable ways, in both university administration and in the academic senate. He also cofounded the UCR Survey Research Center and served as its director. Martin had a genuine love for UCR. Even after leaving for LSU, he would still catch himself referring to UCR’s political science department as “our” department, sometimes trying to correct himself, although we were always clear—and he always knew—that UCR remained a true home for him.

Martin and his wife, historian Sherri Franks Johnson, were both recruited from UCR to LSU in 2014, which was an opportunity to return home for the two native Louisianans. With both of his schoolteacher parents holding degrees from LSU, Martin was a Tiger from an early age. He would often recall spending time on campus while his mother was working on her graduate degree, eating pizza on Chimes Street and swimming in the university pool. It was thus only appropriate that he received the Chancellor’s Alumni Scholarship, one of LSU’s most prestigious, to attend.

Martin received his baccalaureate degree from the Manship School in 1991, during which time his love of politics and journalism was on full display. He served as a reporter, editorial assistant, and then Editor-in-Chief for the school newspaper, The Daily Reveille, where he authored articles ranging from campus politics to national politics, even dabbling in satire with an editorial titled, “Guns & cheerleaders, bad combination.” Exemplifying an early commitment to both collaboration and diversity that would characterize his career, Martin led the effort to produce a joint weekly issue between the Reveille and the student newspaper of nearby historically black university, Southern University. He stood fast in the publication even when local white-owned businesses threatened to pull their ads. He also served as an announcer for university radio station KLSU, and editor of the student magazine, but perhaps most importantly, he would also meet his soon-to-be partner, fellow LSU undergraduate Sherri.

Martin returned home to LSU in 2014 with a joint appointment in the Manship School and the political science department, but even before his official start date he was building the program. In fact, just days after Martin received his own offer from LSU he was on the phone recruiting Kathleen Searles (one of the collaborators on this In Memoriam), describing his vision for building the program’s strength in political communication. And he did; after hiring Searles he helped to hire Nathan Kalmoe, Joshua Darr, Michael Henderson, and Ruth Mari, assuring the school’s reputation for research on media politics, news, and public opinion. Recruiting and building would be a hallmark of his leadership throughout his time at LSU, much as it had been at UCR. Martin returned to LSU as the Kevin P Reilly, Sr. Chair in Political Communication, an endowed chair previously held by stars in the field such as Regina Lawrence, Tim Cook, and Reilly himself. Indeed, Martin cited Cook, who’s own untimely passing at the age of 51 rocked the school, as an early mentor and inspiration.

Despite his growing list of administrative duties during his tragically short return to LSU, Martin still put considerable time and effort into teaching, even taking students to Iowa in January of 2016 to report on the Iowa Caucus. Driving a group of students in a van around Iowa in the middle of the winter is not most professors’ idea of a good time, but Martin did it with gusto, earning the endearing nickname of, “Martini,” from his students, a fact his friends never let him live down.

Martin was instrumental in creating the Manship School’s Statehouse bureau, which trains student journalists to report on the Louisiana Legislature and publish their work in state news outlets. This project was a true reflection of Martin’s passion: a long-time researcher of statehouse reporters, he saw an opportunity to increase Manship student opportunity while serving the state. The lasting impact this program, and his work generally, had on this state was recognized after his passing with a moment of silence in the state legislature.

Having been affected powerfully by his own LSU mentor, Jay Perkins, an investigative reporter turned professor, Martin made mentorship a cornerstone of his own career—even as a graduate student, he easily took on the role as mentor to younger cohorts from recruitment day onward. The importance he placed on training students is evident both in his tenure as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, and the many graduate and undergraduate honors thesis committees he chaired and served on. There are dozens of stories of his many kindnesses to students, but one in particular really embodies the sort of mentor Martin was: when one of Martin’s students, mass communication PhD, Minjie Li, didn’t have the right luggage to take on his first on-campus job interview, he lent him his own. When Li’s family couldn’t attend graduation, he was his single person cheering section. Again, and again, for Li and all of his students, he showed up. A scholar as accomplished as Martin didn’t need to go above and beyond for his students, let alone reach into his own closet, but that was just the kind of person he was.

When he became dean, Martin talked about his vision for the school with everyone; famous for his office “stop-ins” that almost always turned into hour-long conversations. He was emphatic that the school lead the campus on diversity and inclusion efforts, and spent much of his time problem-solving, raising money, and working the sometimes-cumbersome bureaucracy to recruit a diverse faculty. He supported the work of the organization Women Also Know Stuff, finding resources to support Searles as a founding editorial board member, and sharing his dream of someday having a similarly named center on campus. In fact, he had the building picked out: a structure formerly built to house the office of the first female faculty on LSU’s campus.

It was important to him that students, many Louisiana natives, saw their state reflected in the Manship faculty. While dean, he recruited Tina Harris to fill the Douglas L. Manship Sr.-Dori J. Maynard Chair in Race, Media & Cultural Literacy, the first chair of its kind in the nation. A member of the university diversity committee which recently published the campus, “Roadmap to Diversity,” he was instrumental in elevating equity and inclusion as central to the mission of the Manship school. Faculty of color recall Martin making sure that they not only felt seen and heard, particularly after a devastating summer marked by racial injustice, but also doing the hard work behind the scenes to ensure they were also supported by the school and university. Few can talk the talk and walk the walk; Martin was just such a leader.

In the memorials that followed his death many of his colleagues remembered his infectious laugh ringing through the halls, his love of all Louisiana cuisine, even though an adult-onset shellfish allergy made his beloved crawfish just out of reach. He was never above dressing up for Halloween or taking a goofy picture with Mike the Tiger, LSU’s mascot, and he and his family were a regular fixture at LSU Football tailgates. His career, at every stage, was the embodiment of one of his favorite mantras, which he gave to students in his final graduate commencement speech, “You’ve done well, doing good in the process.”

—Johanna L. Dunaway, Texas A&M University

—Kathleen Searles, Louisiana State University

—Kevin M. Esterling, University of California, Riverside

—Shaun Bowler, University of California, Riverside

—Vin Arceneaux, Temple University

Robin A. Remington

Robin Alison Remington, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Missouri, passed away in Columbia on September 3, 2020. A scholar with primary focus on Eastern European politics, Robin leaves a legacy as a pioneer in peace studies, civil-military relations, conflict resolution, and politics of the former Yugoslavia. Robin was a trail blazer in every sense. Robin served as a mentor for generations of students during over two and a half decades of service at the University of Missouri.

Robin was born in Boston on January 15, 1938. Her parents, Mabelle Lois Therrien and Bradford Adams Remington, were both direct descendants of Pilgrim founders of the Plymouth colony. The marriage, however, did not last. Robin moved with her mother, now Mrs. John Poynter, and family to Houston, then to Bacliff, Texas. She excelled in school. Before graduating from Dickinson High School in 1955, Robin became interested in news reporting. She attended Southwest Texas State College (now Texas State University), although her studies were interrupted after her twin brother Richard (Ricky) was severely injured in a workplace accident at an oil refinery. Robin received an AB in Journalism in 1958, and worked briefly as a reporter for the Galveston Tribune.

Receiving a Ford Foundation Foreign Area Training Fellowship (1960–61, 1961–62) allowed Robin to attend Indiana University and study international relations and foreign policy. Her affiliation with the Russian and East European Institute at Indiana moved Robin’s interests toward the study of communist governments. Robin earned an MA in political science from Indiana University in 1961 and a PhD in 1966. She was one of only two women in the graduate program. Robin was fluent in several languages including Russian, French, and Serbo-Croatian.

Robin became a research associate at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1966, a position she maintained through 1973. In 1967, she made her first of countless trips to Yugoslavia. This trip changed the course of her professional and personal life as she developed contacts and life-long friends throughout Yugoslavia. She had visiting lectureships at Boston University (1972–73), University of California-Berkeley (1973), and Yale University (1973–74). This was an era in which few women were entering the discipline, and even fewer studied the military or Eastern Europe. While at MIT, Robin broke gender barriers in areas beyond education. In 1970, she made a dinner reservation for a party of eight under the name “Dr. Remington” at the LockeOber, a fashionable, exclusively men’s grille operating in downtown Boston since 1875. Once they arrived, the restaurant staff were reluctant to remove Dr. Remington and her companions, effectively liberating the establishment from that point forward.

In 1974, Robin accepted a position in the department of political science at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She was the first woman interviewed by the department for a tenure-track position, the first woman hired, and, later, the first woman chair (1985–1988). She was named Frederick A. Middlebush Professor of Political Science, 1989–1992. At Missouri, she met and married her political science colleague, Paul Wallace. Together, they welcomed international students and visitors to their home which they called “Peace Haven.” Their guests were so many that they bought a second house nearby to hold them. Robin was a key organizer of and an active participant in the peace studies program at MU. She received visiting fellowships at Wellesley University (1984, 1989) as well as visiting positions at the Institute for International Politics and Economics in Belgrade (1991) and at the University of Sibiu in Romania (1993). Robin remained on the faculty at Mizzou until her retirement in 2000. However, she continued to travel internationally to eastern Europe and elsewhere for research and collaborative efforts until illness limited her activities. Paul preceded her in death, on February 22.

Her research interests were less concerned with the Soviet Union than with satellite states in eastern Europe. Robin’s focus was on politics and the military, movements such as the Praxis School in Yugoslavia, and women and politics. Stereotypes of communist political systems, she believed, created unnecessary misunderstanding and fear. Her publications include The Warsaw Pact: Case Studies in Communist Conflict Resolution (1971), The International Relations of Eastern Europe: A Guide to Information Sources (1978), the edited volume Winter in Prague: Documents on Czechoslovak Communism in Crisis (1969), along with numerous book chapters, research reports, and articles. Her most recent book, Globalization and Regime Change: Lessons from the New Russia and the New Europe, coedited with Robert K. Evanston, was published in 2019.

During her long career, she served as a colleague, friend, and mentor to countless faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates at Mizzou. Robin cared deeply about people. She endowed three scholarships at University for undergraduate and graduate students: the Edith Taylor Therrien Award, the Robin Remington Scholarship, and the Paul Wallace and Robin Remington Graduate Research Scholarship. The break-up of Yugoslavia deeply affected Robin as she had friends from the various constituent republics. Robin said, “I am a part of the peoples of Yugoslavia. I am not a part of any one people.” Following retirement from Mizzou in 2000, Robin continued to travel, present at conferences, and publish. She is survived by her brother Taylor Poynter, niece Shawna Remington, and children, Steve Wallace and Lisa Wallace. Robin will be missed.

—James Endersby, University of Missouri

—Lael Keiser, University of Missouri

—Steve Roper, Florida Atlantic University

Albert Somit

Albert Somit was born on October 25th, 1919 in Chicago, son of Mary Rosenblum Somit and Sam Somit. He died on August 2, 2020 at 100 years of age. Mary and Sam were both immigrants from villages near the Poland-Russia border. Sam died when Al was four years old. He and his mother lived in Omaha, NE, Detroit, MI, and Council Bluffs, IA, before returning to Chicago for Al’s high school years.

He graduated from Roosevelt High School, then earned his AB degree in history and political science at the University of Chicago, where he was selected as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He spent 1942–1943 in Needles, CA helping to train GIs for possible desert combat. He returned to Chicago and continued his education. It was then that he first became fascinated with biology and its influence on human growth and behavior. He completed his PhD in 1947, while already teaching in the Department of Government at New York University.

From July 1951 to January 1953, he again served in the Army. This time he was in Military Intelligence in the Army of Occupation in Germany. He once spoke to me of a clandestine assignment in East Berlin, in civilian clothes, still wondering how he had managed to return unscathed—and apparently undetected.

After that deployment, he returned to NYU where he taught and served in a variety of administrative positions until 1966. During that time, he took a one year leave when offered a visiting position at the Naval War College in Newport, RI. He held The Chester W. Nimitz Chair of Social and Political Philosophy during the 1961–1962 academic year.

In 1966, he moved to the State University of New York at Buffalo as chair of political science. He moved up through the ranks to Executive Vice President (1970–1980), serving as Acting President for a year (1976–1977) and then as a Fellow of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies (1978–1979).

In 1980, he was named president of Southern Illinois University, a position he held until 1987, when he retired from administration and was named Distinguished Service Professor. He remained active in this role—teaching, conducting research and writing—until he fully retired from SIU in 1992.

If one knew Al Somit, one would not be surprised to know that he was working to the end, focusing his efforts on an American Political Science Association paper looking back over 50 years of biopolitics (the study of the linkage between biology and politics), a field in which he was a founder and in which he continued to work until his death.

While one should not reduce an academic’s value to just research, Al’s intellectual palette was rich; his research interests were broad. For example, his dissertation focused on President Andrew Jackson. From 1948 to 1955, he authored numerous many publications on Jackson—Jackson as administrator, as political theorist, and as administrative reformer. It looks like he published every scrap of information that he had! It fits with a lesson that he taught me in graduate school: “Never waste anything.”

Other focal points of Al’s career include:

• • The Development of American Political Science: From Burgess to Behavioralism (with Joe Tanenhaus) (1967). With this and other works, Somit and Tanenhaus created a set of works exploring the history of political science.

• • Critical analyses of the primacy principle (what is learned earliest has a profound effect on later political attitudes and behavior: International Political Science Review; American Behavioral Scientist). In addition, he and colleagues explored political science education and its effects on undergraduate students’ political orientations and behavior and published a number of articles on the subject.

• • An edited work, Political Science and the Study of the Future (1973).

• • “Sartre’s Existentialism as a Political Theory” (Social Science, 1950). In addition, many of his other works featured analysis of political philosophy—including the linkage between the subject and biopolitics.

• • Al and his friend Ruldolf Wildenmann published a book on The Victorious Incumbent (1994), in which they discussed the dark side of this feature of politics.

• • In a series of articles, he explored the effect of birth order on political eminence—culminating in a book with two colleagues that pulled these together (Birth Order and Political Behavior, 1996).

• • Using a national data base, he coauthored a book titled Political Behavior of Older Americans (1994).

Perhaps, though, his greatest achievement was serving as one of the founders of an interdisciplinary movement to link biology with politics (an approach sometimes termed “biopolitics”). He worked with Dr. Carl Gans, from the Department of Biology at the State University of New York at Buffalo, to deepen his knowledge of the relevant biological literature. He then authored one of the first publications in this area in 1968 in the Midwest Journal of Politics (Now the American Journal of Political Science). In 1972, he wrote a review of the first ten years of biopolitics that appeared in the British Journal of Political Science. One of the first volumes outlining the variety of approaches to biology and politics came from a conference in Paris that AI organized—Biology and Politics, which he edited. He was there at the beginning of the enterprise and was actively involved for five decades thereafter.

He authored numerous articles and chapters in books (including coediting a book series with JAI Press and, later, Emerald Publishing), “Research in Biology and Politics,” that featured current research by practitioners. Many junior faculty had their work included, thus nurturing a new generation of scholars in the field. Among his other book length works were: Glendon Schubert and Al Somit (eds.), Biology of Primate Sociopolitical Behavior; Darwinism, Dominance, and Democracy; Failure of Democratic Nation Building; and Handbook of Biology and Politics.

A major contribution by Al and other senior political scientists interested in biopolitics (including John Wahlke, Glen Schubert, Fred Kort, Roger Masters, Jim Davies—and international scholars such as Rudolf Wildenmann, Jerzy Wiatr, Heiner Flohr et al.) was their willingness to mentor junior faculty and graduate students. This mentorship was clearly important in my career as I learned from senior people; I was not the only one who so benefitted.

AI also was involved in developing organizational infrastructure for biopolitics. Through the International Political Science Association, he developed Research Committee #12 (Biology and Politics), one of the earliest of IPSA’s research committees. This provided for development of panels for the triennial (now, biennial) international congresses and an international imprimatur. He continued to serve in one leadership role or another in this research committee until his death. When the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (APLS) began, AI was one of those tapped to be on the Council and also served on the editorial board of the organization’s journal, Politics and the Life Sciences. He continued to be involved in leadership positions in APLS for the next two decades.

He participated in APSA committees, including the Committee on Scientific Information Exchange. At an international level, he was a member of the Directing Group of the Programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

He was a fine teacher. I took two graduate classes with him (Political Philosophy and Biopolitics); I also served as his TA in an undergraduate course on biopolitics (taught while he was executive vice president). He engaged and challenged students. At one point or another, graduate students in class all felt like Glaucon, with Al as Socrates pummeling us with questions. But he was accessible and good natured in front of his classes. He was willing to give his RAs coauthorships on works where they materially assisted whatever he might be writing. And, as noted before, he was free with his time for graduate students and untenured faculty interested in biopolitics.

He was preceded in death by his first wife, Leyla. He is survived by his wife, Lyn Corder; by his sons, Scott Somit, and wife, Carol, and Jed Somit, and wife, Toni Maines; five grandchildren, Micah Somit, Max Somit, Hal Somit and his wife Brittany, Jacob Somit and his wife Elisa, and Julia Somit; and two great-grandchildren, Kennedy and Jax Somit. He will be greatly missed by his stepchildren, Ryan Muldoon and his wife, Michelle, Cory Muldoon and his wife, Laura Mullkoff, Maureen Muldoon and her husband, Scott Lothes, and four grandsons, Aidan and Gabriel Muldoon and Bayard and Eugene Mullkoff. He will also be missed by Nora Post to whom he was married in the late 1970s through early 1980s and who remained a true friend for the rest of his life.

In AI’s view, his most important contribution as a professional political scientist was to remind people who and what we are, recognition of which has come slowly. More generally, he saw value in his effort to clarify how evolutionary tendencies, reflected in human nature, strongly influence what and how our species learns, including bureaucratic behavior. Together with colleagues such as Joe Tanenhaus and me, he contended that socialization does not account for the manifestation of political behavior separate from evolutionary influences. He believed that human behavior has been fundamentally influenced by our evolutionary tendencies and will continue to be so.

One century of life, working on academic issues until the very end. A real dedication to the study of politics and to the questions raised by the nature of human nature. And a legacy worthy of his efforts.

—Steven A. Peterson, Penn State Harrisburg

Contact [email protected] to submit an In Memoriam to Political Science Today.