Clara Penniman, emeritus professor of political science, University of Wisconsin–Madison, died on January 30, 2009. Penniman was born on April 5, 1914, in Steger, Illinois, to Alethea B. and Rae E. Penniman.
She graduated from high school in Lancaster, Wisconsin. After working for a number of years, including for the Wisconsin State Employment Service and War Manpower Commission, Penniman earned her BA and MA degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1954, she received a Ph.D. degree in political science from the University of Minnesota.
Penniman taught political science on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1953 to 1984, where she held the Oscar Rennebohm Chair for Public Administration for the last 10 years. She was the only woman on the faculty when she joined it in 1953. She was the first woman to chair that university's department of political science, which she did from 1963 to 1966. She served on a dozen or more university faculty committees, including the prestigious University Committee, which she chaired in 1973–1974. She represented the University of Wisconsin–Madison on the State's Merger Implementation Study Committee, which recommended the new structure of Wisconsin's university system. She also served on various other state committees. Penniman was also a founder and director of the Center for the Study of Public Policy and Administration, which became today's Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs.
Penniman received numerous awards, beginning with election to Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi as an undergraduate. She received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota Alumni Association in 1978 and the University of Wisconsin Alumni Association's Distinguished Service Award in 1981. Ms. Penniman was elected president of the Midwest Political Science Association in 1965; she served as vice president of the American Political Science Association in 1971–1972; and she was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Public Administration in 1974. Penniman was active with the North Central Association of Universities and Colleges, where she reviewed accreditation of colleges and universities both on visiting committees and on a review panel. She participated in the League of Women Voters of Madison, serving as its president from 1956–1958, and she served for a number of years on the state board of the Wisconsin League of Women Voters. Penniman published several books and articles, primarily in the fields of tax administration and public administration.
Her parents and her brother, Howard, predeceased her. She is survived by her sister-in-law, three nieces, two nephews, 21 grandnieces and nephews, and 12 great grandnieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the University of Wisconsin's Foundation for the Political Science Department.
