Peter Bachrach
Peter Bachrach, who died this past December 14, was one of the most distinguished theorists of power of his generation. He was born in Winnetka, Illinois, on June 19, 1918, and received his BA from Reed College. Peter earned his Ph.D. from Harvard as part of the generation of Americans that completed their graduate training in the immediate aftermath of World War II—when Carl Friedrich was the dominant voice in theory at Harvard. He taught at Bryn Mawr College for more than 22 years, serving as chair of its department for part of that time. In 1968, Peter left Bryn Mawr for Temple University—where he continued to teach and write until his retirement in the mid-1980s.
Peter is most famous for his article (co-authored with Morton Baratz) “Two Faces of Power,” which appeared in the APSR in 1962 and has become the most widely cited article in the more than 100 year history of the APSR. The face of power that Peter was most concerned to expose and explore in that article was the one that consists in “the extent that a person or group—consciously or unconsciously—creates or reinforces barriers to the public airing of policy conflicts.” Peter denominated this form of power, the power of “nondecision,” and thereby helped innovate and charter a term that has gained wide currency in our discipline. Under its aegis, an extraordinary expansion has taken place of the arenas deemed appropriate for the location and assessment of power within American society and beyond. Those settings such as home, school, and workplace, wherein “the values and biases that are built into the political system” are generated and transmitted, become as urgent a focus for political investigation as the officially-designated areas of political deliberation and decision making within a society. The elusiveness and fecundity of the concept of power forms an obsessive leitmotif in Peter's work. His writings constitute an important channel through which working political scientists in a whole range of sub-fields outside of political theory have become socialized to an appreciation of the subtleties of power that are more hermetically analyzed in the writings of Machiavelli, Marx, and Foucault.
Peter's response on both a theoretical and practical level to his diagnosis of the ubiquity of power-formation and dissemination was to attach central importance to the notion of political participation. In order for average citizens to both notice and democratically channel the effusions and residues of power that accompanied virtually all human initiatives (the larger the initiatives, the greater the effusions and residues of power), ordinary people needed to maximize their opportunities for political participation and the scope of their involvement in political decision making. What also needed to be extended was the number of areas officially acknowledged as coming within the purview of the political. In this way, a kind of unity between theory and practice would be achieved that would enable ordinary members of society to both learn and capitalize upon the myriad overt and overt ways in which power is manifested and proliferated across networks of social interaction. From Peter's perspective, the justifications and payoffs for this sort of approach were immense. Given the interlocking and rebounding relationship between what were officially regarded as public and private (largely corporate) spaces in this country—and the governmental backdrop needed to secure, if not to outright fund and subsidize these ostensibly private spaces—expanding the frontiers of democratic participation across corporate workspaces (including universities) would help to nurture both a politically more alert citizenry and a greater equalization of power across political society.
During the whole course of his career, Peter practiced what he preached. At Bryn Mawr he supported students involved in the civil rights and anti-war movements. He helped in an effort to organize the maids and porters into a union. In 1968 he helped to establish a chapter of Students for Democratic Action at Temple. In 1971 he joined with students in trying to get the university to open its financial records to public scrutiny to justify imposing a tuition hike upon students. Peter was a tremendously popular and energizing teacher. He taught in an open, participatory way that encouraged students to express their thoughts and to interact constructively with him and their fellow students. He continually sought to make students aware of how learning was an ongoing adventure that offered no final words of consolation and no permanent solutions. He sought to impart in his classes the notion that there was no quick fix to anything. Even democratic participation had to be continually interrogated and counterbalanced by protection of minority rights. As a result of a childhood bout with polio, Peter remained handicapped and needed to use two canes in order to move about. His outward demeanor was in dramatic contrast with his physical condition. He always exuded cheerfulness, generosity, a pronounced empathy with others—and a kind of aristocratic nonchalance that communicated that he was at ease with himself and immediately placed everyone else at ease. Some of my most enduring memories of Peter derive from my early years at Temple. We would walk together to class one or two blocks away from where our offices were situated and Peter would raise questions that went to the quick of the imponderable, irresolvable elements of one great political theorist or another. We would invariably have to leave many threads dangling and enter class fresh to inaugurate the explorations of the day. These conversations in their simultaneously achieved transience and permanence microcosmically illuminated for me both his fascination with power and the arresting things that he had to say about it. Peter was an extraordinary human being and a razor-sharp, probing thinker—and I (like many of his students and colleagues over the years) cherish all of the moments of conversation and interaction that I shared with him.
Memorial donations may be made to the American Civil Liberties Union, 25 Broad St., 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004.
Aryeh Botwinick, Temple University
Keon Chi
Dr. Keon S. Chi, a former professor at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, passed away on January 9, 2008, in a tragic automobile accident. The faculty, students, and staff at Georgetown College will truly miss Dr. Chi, who was a great teacher, a wonderful colleague, and a dear friend. Dr. Chi was the chair of the department of political science in 1996, when I first met him, and his enthusiasm for Georgetown College and its students convinced me to accept his offer to join the department. Like many job candidates today, I had the opportunity to visit the campus and meet with its faculty and administration, but for Dr. Chi, he began his teaching career in a different way.
Dr. Chi loved to tell how he ended up at Georgetown College. As a newly minted Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University in 1970, he received a call from Dr. Robert Snyder, a man he had never met, who offered him a job at a place he had never heard of—Georgetown College, in Kentucky, a state he had never visited. Surprisingly, he accepted the position and moved across the country to begin a remarkable career. Over the next 36 years, Dr. Chi taught political science to several generations of students. He was a popular, yet demanding, professor and inspired a countless number of students to pursue their dreams, whether it was to attend graduate school, law school, or work in whatever field they chose. Dr. Chi kept up with many of his students and would beam with pride when one of them was in the news for some award or promotion.
Dr. Chi received a number of campus awards for his teaching, including the Cawthorne Excellence in Teaching Award. His outstanding skills were nationally recognized in 1998, when he was named the 1998 Carnegie Foundation's Kentucky Professor of the Year. As the nominator for that award, I received many letters from his current and former students who couldn't say enough about him. One student wrote, “As a political science major, people who were faced with the prospect of taking a political science course would often ask me which professor to take. Without hesitation I would respond, ‘Any Dr. Chi class.’” Another wrote, “As a political science major, I took nine classes under Dr. Chi. In the classroom, he was both dedicated and extremely knowledgeable. Many of the skills and much of the knowledge I gained from his courses proved extremely valuable to me in law school … In addition, I also enjoyed Dr. Chi's unique motivational tool that he called the ‘cookie honor roll.’ In short, Dr. Chi gave the top two or three students in class the option of baking homemade cookies for the rest of the class rather than taking the final.”
Dr. Chi believed strongly in the mission of Georgetown College, and served the college in many roles. As a member of the faculty, he served on a number of committees and task forces. One professor noted that she “has heard faculty members say that they would rather serve with Dr. Chi than with anyone else.” He brought to the committee room the same intelligence, sense of humor, and warmth that he brought to the classroom. In fact, it was his commitment to the faculty that led to his departure from full-time teaching. Dr. Chi reluctantly agreed to leave the classroom in January of 1999 to serve as the academic dean. During his brief tenure he revitalized the faculty, fought for an increase in faculty salaries, and increased the college's research and travel support. When the college reorganized its administration and hired a provost/vice president of academic affairs, Dr. Chi was able to return to the classroom. However, because his administrative skills were recognized and appreciated, he retained some administrative duties and was only able to teach half-time.
Without a doubt, Dr. Chi was as every bit as talented as a researcher as he was as a teacher. In 1981, Dr. Chi became affiliated with the Council of State Governments in Lexington, where he wrote on state government issues, served as editor-in-chief for both the Book of States and the Journal of State Government, and frequently lectured to state legislatures and bureaucrats across the nation. He wrote and published over a hundred articles, papers, and book chapters, and won awards from a number of different organizations. He received the James Webb Award for the outstanding paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Public Administration, and consulted for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. General Accounting Office. He also served a two-year term as the national president of the Association of Korean Political Studies.
In sum, Dr. Keon Chi was an excellent teacher, scholar, colleague, and administrator. He has touched hundreds of lives in many ways, and has truly had a positive impact on this world. As another former student wrote, “In conclusion, I must say that Dr. Chi was the most caring, dedicated, and knowledgeable instructor under whom I have ever studied. I consider my work with him to be some of the most rewarding of all my experiences as a student. Perhaps that is why I was so touched when I walked down the aisle at my wedding and saw Dr. Chi sitting in the aisle smiling. Only someone who has the opportunity to work with, study under, and become friends with Dr. Chi could understand the significance of that gesture.”
Although Dr. Chi has passed from this world, his words, his teachings, and his influence will continue to live long in the hearts and mind of his many, many students.
Jon K. Dalager, Georgetown College
Beverly Blair Cook
The political science department at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee mourns the passing of Emeritus Professor Beverly Blair Cook. She died in Claremont, California, on January 18, 2008. Her distinguished career in judicial politics left a legacy of achievement that transcends her subfield and established her as a major voice in the discipline.
Cook received her MA at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1949 and taught briefly at Iowa State University before taking an extended leave from the profession to have four children. She received her Ph.D. from Claremont University and Graduate School in 1960. She taught at California State University at Fullerton until 1966. During the summer of that year, she met the late political scientist Cornelius Cotter at a summer seminar at Virginia Tech. They married shortly thereafter, and both then spent the remaining years of their careers at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Cook's scholarly work began in the 1960s, during a period in which the field of public law was heatedly divided between those who emphasized the study of traditional legal doctrine and others who saw judges as political actors. The Judicial Process in California (1967), her first book, was an important contribution to the rapidly growing literature on judicial behavior. As Epstein and Mather explained in their chapter on Cook in The Pioneers of Judicial Behavior (2002), this book “demonstrated that the judicial process was an essential part of the political process, that the political party of judges was directly related to judicial selection, that judges' identities (background, age, race, gender, and class) mattered … and that a complete understanding of courts necessitated consideration of participants other than judges—lawyers, interest groups, police, and litigants” (174–5).
Cook also made major contributions by advancing the concept of judicial socialization, although this concept has had a greater impact in sociology and in the legal profession than in political science. In a related vein, her work examined the effect of “political and legal culture” on judges. She found that state and federal judges in the same locality tended to hand down similar sentences in criminal cases, reflecting the importance of local variations in political culture and legal traditions.
The impact of public opinion on judicial behavior remains a critically important and controversial issue, and Cook was an innovator in addressing it. As Epstein and Mather put it:
… today, at least in the area of public opinion, it would indeed be a rare piece that did not take into account alternative explanations. But, … Cook first had this important intuition and adopted it in her work. Seen in this way, she truly was a pioneer of the judicial process, a researcher two decades ahead of her time. (181)
Finally, Cook devoted a great deal of her later work to the study of gender in judicial behavior. Again, Epstein and Mather offer an unequivocal conclusion regarding Cook's importance in this area: “It is no exaggeration to write that virtually all contemporary writings on the selection of female judges and their impact owe their origin to her studies” (181). In addition to her work on the selection of judges, Cook also made major contributions to studying the impact of female judges on the bench.
Cook's contributions extended well beyond her published scholarship. One of her most striking achievements was her important role in founding the National Association of Women Judges. At the 1980 NAWJ convention Cook arranged for the women judges attending the conference to enter and tour the Supreme Court building as a group to, as she put it, “impress the justices with their number.” Chief Justice Burger was reportedly struck by the number of women in the group. “Just one month later, the justices dropped … the term Mr…. from official court reports, and exactly one year later, Sandra Day O'Connor joined the Court” (Epstein and Mather, 185).
At the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Cook was an impressive and intellectually powerful figure, working extensively in university governance while continuing to make major contributions in research and teaching. Her legacy also extends to the generations of women who followed her in the profession, for many of whom she not only served as a role model, but also as a person who befriended and mentored them throughout their careers. In addition, Cook was an overseer of the NSF's project on the U.S. Supreme Court; served as vice president of both the APSA (1986–1987) and the Midwest Political Science Association (1982–1983); and, in 2000, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the APSA's Law and Courts section.
In an essay she wrote in 1994 after a roundtable tribute at the 1992 Annual Meetings, Cook noted the “male giants and female ghosts” that she considered to be her two “lines of predecessors.” Frank Goodnow, Edward Corwin, and Glendon Schubert were among her most important influences among political scientists, but several women outside academia were also critical to her scholarly development. These “ghosts” include Sophonisba Breckinridge, Alice Paul, and Eleanor Bontecou. Cook explained that the scarcity of women among early public law scholars was due to the fact that it was “difficult for female outsiders to break into groups with a long tradition of male monopoly,” and that the subfield was closely connected to the legal profession, which also had a history of excluding females (81–83).
Cook's career was thus groundbreaking both because she was a scholarly innovator with an enduring impact and because she was one of the first women in political science to break barriers in a field long dominated by men.
Cook is survived by three of her four children, four stepchildren, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Marcus E. Ethridge, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Jerzy Hauptmann
Jerzy Hauptmann, a professor of political science and public administration, and a 50-year veteran of teaching at Park College, died in late January at his home in Parkville, Missouri. He held emeritus status but could be seen frequently on campus attending to various projects and tasks. A memorial was held April 9, 2008, on the campus of Park University.
Born in Poland of German descent, Jerzy identified himself only as an American of Polish descent, and an evangelical Lutheran. When war came to Poland, Jerzy joined the Polish underground and was later inducted into the officers' school of the Home Army. Eventually he became part of a group known as “sewer rats” for their use of the sewer system to aid in the Warsaw Uprising in August–October, 1944. Eventually the city fell and Jerzy's group had to surrender to the Germans. Sent to a prisoner-of-war camp, Jerzy survived but did not return to post-war Poland. As a conservative, he could not reconcile living in a communist-dominated homeland.
After the war, Jerzy moved to Innsbruck, Austria, where he received an MBA and Ph.D. In 1950 he took part in a project created by the International Refugee Organization that helped him emigrate to the United States. He did post-doctoral studies at Northwestern University and became a faculty member at Park College in 1951.
During his career Jerzy had various academic appointments including: professor of international relations at the National War College, Fulbright professor of political science at the University of Nurnberg, and visiting professorships at the University of Hamburg and at the Graduate School of Public Administration in Speyer, Germany. During his appointments at Nurnberg, Hamburg, and Speyer, Jerzy gave special attention to public administration, especially the American approach to public policy and administration. He was attempting to achieve an international connection for public administration and the rational approach to public policy problems.
He served as executive secretary of the Conference on European Problems, an international organization concerned with East-West relations during the Cold War. He was a frequent speaker at the annual European Studies Conference at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, presenting papers on the transition in eastern Europe and Poland's approach to becoming a member of NATO and the European Union. Jerzy also served as the editor for The Midwest Review of Public Administration for almost 20 years.
Jerzy received numerous awards during his career, among them: Outstanding Professor at Park College, the Greater Kansas City Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration's Public Administrator-Academic of the Year Award, and the L.P. Cookingham Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Administration.
In 1982 Jerzy founded the Park College Graduate School for Public Affairs. Melding his interests in public administration and his skills at organizing, the school found a niche in Kansas City and has grown steadily. The program has emphasized professionalism while eschewing hierarchy and rigid formalism. In 2001, after Jerzy's retirement, the school was renamed The Hauptmann School for Public Affairs.
It was my distinct honor and privilege to work with Jerzy for 25 years. His mentorship provided enough guidance to steer one's way through the shoals of academia while still allowing one to cause trouble if so desired. Jerzy encouraged all to participate but also to take responsibility for that participation. His deep conservative convictions led him to question the role of government in the affairs of people, but they also led him to share generously in all he had.
Always placing rationality above feelings and beliefs, Jerzy gave students a sense of ownership in their education by forcing them into critically examining assumptions. This also was reflected in what he saw as “civic engagement” where action was rational and goal-oriented focusing on results. His resolve in these matters was contagious.
He is survived by a son, Jerzy Jr., Maryland; and a daughter Emily, professor of political science at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Jerzy was a student of the world, a distinguished educator, lecturer and writer, a mentor, and a very good friend.
Ron Brecke, Park University
Kenneth Ray Hoover
Kenneth Ray Hoover, professor of political science emeritus at Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, passed away on July 14, 2007, from cancer at the age of 66. He is survived by Judy, his spouse of 40 years, in addition to a brother, son, a daughter, and two grandsons.
Professor Hoover chaired the department at Western Washington from 1988 to 1995, having previously taught at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside (1978–1988), the College of Wooster (1970–1978), and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (1964–1970). He was the author, co-author, or editor of seven books, including Economics as Ideology: Keynes, Laski, and Hayek and the Creation of Contemporary Politics (2003), The Elements of Social Scientific Thinking (9th ed., 2007), The Power of Identity (1997), Conservative Capitalism in Britain and the United States (1989), and A Politics of Identity (1975), in addition to numerous articles. Professor Hoover was a key and much admired academic leader in each of the institutions he served, including tours as president of the Faculty Senate and chair of the University Planning Council at Western Washington following his time as department chair.
Ken Hoover was a leader in his community as well as in his university. He served as moderator of his church and was a founding of member of the Bellingham City Club, formed to bring together citizens of diverse backgrounds for informed discussion of issues important to the community. He was instrumental in helping to launch the political career of former Congressman and Secretary of Defense Les Aspin. Professor Hoover also maintained a treasured association with the London School of Economics and with Nuffield College of Oxford University. His was a noble conception of politics, always centered on the betterment of the human condition without regard to artificial and needless boundaries between town and gown, teaching and research, scholarship and policymaking, or between the human concerns of a local community, a nation, and the larger world. In this respect it was fitting that Ken would leave us on Bastille Day, a day celebrating liberation of the human spirit in the political realm.
For more than four decades, for us and so many others who knew him, Ken was always a source of witty and trenchant insight into the world of politics, an intellectual soul mate, and a truly great friend. We will treasure memories of innumerable conversations with Ken in which explorations of political ideas and politics were synonymous with deep collegiality and friendship.
John W. Harbeson, City University of New York
Donald K. Emmerson, Stanford University
Donald R. Matthews
Donald R. Matthews, professor of political science emeritus at the University of Washington, passed away November 3, 2007, in Seattle at the age of 82 after a long struggle with emphysema.
Don arrived at the University of Washington in 1976 and chaired the department from 1976–1983, assuming emeritus status in 1996 after which he remained active in the department, the university, and the profession. Earlier in his academic career, Don was on the faculty at Smith College, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Michigan. He also was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Donald R. Matthews was born September 14, 1925, and grew up in Cincinnati. He attended Glendale, Ohio, public schools from 1931 to 1943, graduating high school early. After completing his freshman year at Kenyon College, with the War in full force, Don went to midshipman training. The Navy sent him to Purdue and then to officer training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. At the age of 20 he was commissioned as an Ensign and assigned to a Navy repair ship, where he served as navigator during the last year of the Pacific War. On his way to the North Pacific, Japan and China, he touched down briefly at the Sand Point Naval Air Station in the heart of Seattle, a city he would return to some 32 years later.
In his unassuming manner, Don liked to talk about his days as a navigator. He claimed that he was so bad at it that he might have lost the war in the Pacific single-handedly had he not had the good fortune to be navigator on a ship sailing in a convoy.
After the war, Don enrolled at Princeton in the politics department, with junior standing and supported by the G.I. Bill, earning his BA in 1948, MA in 1951, and finally his Ph.D. in 1953. He married his first wife, Maggie C. Richmond in 1948, was divorced, married Carmen J. Onstad in 1970, and was subsequently divorced. He had two children from his first marriage, Mary (Molly), a Seattle firefighter who died during the conduct of her duties, and Jonathan; and two from his second marriage, Christopher and Amy. He is also survived by his beloved granddaughter, Norah.
Don joined the faculty at Smith College in 1951 and remained there until 1957, when he joined the department of political science at the University of North Carolina. At Chapel Hill he served as professor and director of the Political Studies Program until 1970. From 1970 until 1973 Don was a senior fellow in governmental studies and director of Studies in Presidential Selection at the Brookings Institution. He joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1973, and in 1976 left Ann Arbor for Seattle, where he spent the rest of his academic career.
When Don came to Chapel Hill in 1957, he joined Jim Prothro and Fred Cleaveland, who were already there. They were sometimes known as the “Princeton Mafia” as all three had received their graduate training there. The three of them formed a benign oligarchy that energized a somewhat sleepy if promising old Southern department and shook it hard into the excellence that it attained in the late 1960s. When Carolina people speak of the “Golden Age,” the reference is unmistakably to that time.
Don took over as chair of the department at the University of Washington in 1976 at a critical juncture. He was by all accounts most responsible for turning the fortunes of the department around and laying the foundation for the outstanding department that exists today. He also served as adjunct professor of Scandinavian studies, and was responsible in 1979 for founding the UW-University of Bergen (Norway) Faculty Exchange Program, which continues to thrive today. This exchange program is the largest and most successful of its kind on the UW campus, with over 150 faculty members having served from both institutions and drawn from multiple disciplines. Don spent the 1980–81 academic year with his family in Bergen on this exchange program. It was here that his initial work began on what would become his 1999 book (with Henry Valen) on Parliamentary Representation: The Case of the Norwegian Storting. In 1985 the University of Bergen bestowed the honorary Ph.D. degree on Don in recognition of his extraordinary academic leadership. Don frequently commented that his several visits to Norway were among his most enjoyable times.
At the UW he fondly told a story about what he walked into when assuming his position. The department was so conflictual at the time that the Seattle Times sent a reporter to faculty meetings. Don related that he told the reporter not to bother to come anymore, because he planned to ensure that the department had only boring faculty meetings in the future. Don had a “bad apple” theory of organizational problems, and he moved to allow some faculty members to leave, generally with grace. But that was not enough. To ensure continued stability, organizational progress, and a productive academic environment, he stressed it was obligatory to maintain civil dialogue. Many times we heard him say about a colleague, “I don't do political science the way he does political science, but he is really first-rate at what he does.” The mutual respect across academic sub-disciplines survives within the department today.
Don was a major figure in the discipline, publishing eight books and numerous articles in professional journals, including The American Political Science Review, International Social Science Journal, The Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and The Public Opinion Quarterly. He is best known for two important books, U.S. Senators and Their World and Negroes and the New Southern Politics, the latter co-authored with Jim Prothro, his colleague at the University of North Carolina. Don's other important contributions include Yeas and Nays: A Theory of Decision-Making in the US House of Representatives with Jim Stimson (1975) and The Party's Choice with Bill Keech (1976). His final book was Parliamentary Representation: The Case of the Norwegian Storting with Henry Valen (1999).
U.S. Senators and Their World, published in 1960, combined quantitative and qualitative information (including extensive interviews with 25 senators, 62 of their staff members, 14 lobbyists, and eight journalists) to paint a picture of the Senate through the eyes of those who had served there between 1947 and 1957. Matthews found the Senate of the period to be a socialization mechanism through which personal aspirations were reconciled with organizational goals through the operation of norms and expectations—the “folkways” of the Senate. On the basis of his astute observations, he classified senators, as Patricians, Professionals, Amateurs, and Agitators. President Lyndon B. Johnson, a senator when the book was written, called it “a landmark in the study of the Senate.” President John Kennedy commented for the dust jacket that the book was “sharp, perceptive, instructive, and entertaining,” a comment that generations of students of the legislative process, including those of today, would agree with.
Negroes and the New Southern Politics, published in 1966 based on research that began many years earlier, was a monumental effort to combine the ecological methods of V.O. Key's classic Southern Politics with survey research to document the emergence of the Black voter in the South. The research design involved aggregate data on Negro registration in around 1,000 Southern counties as of 1958, a survey of White and Black Southerners in early 1961, a special sub-sample of four particular communities, and a survey of Black college students. The book gives us a detailed picture of Black political participation circa 1960; it is an invaluable baseline as well as being a methodological tour de force. As in all his academic research, Don gave employment and training in producing this book to graduate students, many of whom went on to prominent political science careers of their own. The surveys remain useful today; Chris Parker, now of the University of Washington, used the Matthews-Prothro samples to examine the attitudes of Black World War II veterans. Only their extraordinary special samples of Black southerners made this possible.
Most notable among Don's numerous awards and honors included serving as a fellow in the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavior Sciences (1964–65); Guggenheim Fellowship (1980–81); member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1970); president, Western Political Science Association (1978–79); vice president, American Political Science Association (1985–86); and the fourteenth annual faculty lecturer, University of Washington (1989). He also held numerous visiting appointments including at Columbia University (1955), The Brookings Institution (1969–70), University of Bergen (1980–81), University of Oslo (1984), University of East Anglia (1987), and London School of Economics and Political Science (1988).
All of us who have studied his work know that he was a wonderful writer. Don's coauthors knew that “wonderful” rather than “gifted” was the right adjective, because he was capable of writing drafts that were pretty ordinary and then he worked very, very hard on them to turn them into the polished gems we associate with his name.
As all of his students knew, Don was an infinitely patient teacher. His research assistants knew of his deft touch with data. It was typical for them to pour through printouts and impatiently pronounce that there was nothing there, no patterns worth writing about. Don would take those same printouts and weave a subtle and sophisticated analysis with them. Don was exceptionally generous in giving credit for what was in fact RA work on his idea. But that was Don. Working with him was an unforgettable learning experience. Don's best students soaked up like a sponge the craft of political science from him. It was an experience every student should have.
Don saw that norms were important for university governance as well as for legislative bodies, but he also understood that incentives for excellence matter as well. He who provided extraordinary financial support to the University of Washington in establishing the Donald R. Matthews Endowment for Excellence in Political Science that provided resources for both graduate fellowships and a distinguished professorship. His gift of $814,000 in 1996 to start the program remains the largest faculty donation to the university's College of Arts and Sciences. The Matthews Endowment is the centerpiece of the American politics program at Washington.
Don was a wonderful friend and mentor to many of us. He made a practice of inviting friends and colleagues to his beautiful home on Orcas Island in the San Juan group of islands in Northern Puget Sound. It is here that he continued his life-long love of the sea, initially stimulated in his youth at the family summer place in the Great Lakes. As an accomplished sailor, he showed skills that compared him with the very best. He never tired of tacking into the wind. It was also on Orcas Island where you could find Don enjoying his remarkable collection of jazz LP records, collected over the years by himself, who as a teenager, took up percussion instruments as his stock in music. His son, Christopher Matthews, notes what we all recognized: “He had a dry sense of humor and enjoyed jazz music … He had a collection of jazz LPs and always had an LP playing. He liked to play the host and have dinner parties and friends over.”
As a host to visiting friends and colleagues from the UW, and frequently from other U.S. universities, and from Norway and Britain, he demonstrated extraordinary courtesy and great generosity. Throughout his professional and personal life, Don displayed a civility that proved contagious. After Don moved from his houseboat on Lake Union to an upper-floor condominium in downtown Seattle, he hosted an annual Fourth of July party that allowed those attending to view two firework shows at once.
For the departments of political science at the University of Washington, North Carolina, and Michigan, and for the profession of political science, Don combined the best of his Senatorial “Professional” with his commitment to hard, detailed work, and his “Patrician,” with his understanding of the importance of the roles of courtesy and norms of behavior. We will all miss him very much.
The family has requested memorial contributions be to “The Matthews Fund” at the University of Washington. Checks should be made payable to the UW Foundation, and can be mailed to:
Ann Buscherfeld, Administrator, University of Washington, Political Science, Box 353530, Seattle, WA 98195-3530
Bryan Jones, Bill Keech, Peter May, David Olson, Jim Stimson, The University of Washington
Lester W. Milbrath
On the morning of December 26, 2007, Professor Lester W. Milbrath passed away peacefully following a long illness. His research had enormous influence on political science, and he was widely regarded as a major figure in the discipline. His former students, colleagues, and family are deeply saddened by his passing. He will be missed greatly by all those who knew him or profited from reading his numerous books and articles.
Professor Milbrath was born in Bertha, Minnesota, in 1925 and served as an electrician in the Navy at the end of World War II. Following his discharge, he received his BA and MA degrees from the University of Minnesota, and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1956. He held a research fellowship at the Brookings Institution in 1956–1957. He then taught at Duke, Northwestern University, and the University at Buffalo (the largest unit in the SUNY system), where he spent most of his career.
While at Northwestern University, Professor Milbrath published his seminal work, The Washington Lobbyists, in 1963. Building upon his early interest in the role money plays in politics, he sought to analyze and explain the influence of lobbyists over congressional actors in Washington, D.C. Very little empirical research had been conducted on them before that time. The Washington Lobbyists was considered a path breaking work. Much to the surprise of political scientists at the time, his survey suggested that lobbyists exerted little influence and, instead, were a critical source of information for legislators. Exactly how lobbyists communicated with legislators was a focus of Professor Milbrath's study.
In 1965 he published, Political Participation: How and Why do People Get Involved in Politics. It examined the literature on citizen political participation extensively, conveying major empirical findings reported in previous studies in a highly organized manner. The book attracted a great deal of attention in the discipline. It became widely cited, prompting Professor Milbrath to co-author a second, substantially updated edition of the volume in 1977 with Professor M. Lal Goel.
Excited about the significant expansion of the SUNY system in the 1960s, he joined the department of political science at Buffalo in 1966. (He also held a joint appointment in the department of sociology beginning in 1987.) By then he had already established himself has an important scholar in political behavior, a central focus of the discipline at the time. Professor Milbrath continued to place his 80-plus chapters and papers in prestigious political science journals or books. He regularly taught undergraduate and graduate courses on political psychology, political attitudes and behavior, and research methodology.
In 1971 Professor Milbrath was invited to attend a faculty meeting at SUNY/Buffalo on environmental issues. Although he had not previously given the subject much thought, he left the meeting convinced that this was a crucial area for investigation. As a consequence, he shifted his attention away from research questions strictly involving political behavior, and began analyzing the human dimension of the environmental problems facing society.
The topic of environmental beliefs and values, as well as environmental policymaking, remained a research focus for Professor Milbrath throughout the remainder of his long career. In addition to his numerous journal articles and book chapters, he published Environmentalists: Vanguard for a New Society in 1984. This book compared and contrasted the attitudes, values, and perceptions of environmentalists with those of the rearguard, a group of people who embrace the dominant social paradigm of economic growth at any cost. Environmentalists: Vanguard for a New Society was based on extensive survey data. It received a great deal of acclaim by political scientists and scholars in environmental studies. Because of this work and his other writings, we now understand the belief systems of leaders and citizens who significantly differ in their support for environmental protection much better.
According to Professor Milbrath, a major challenge for those calling for the establishment of a new, sustainable society is the need to map out a way to abandon the dominant social paradigm of growth and move towards embracing a new environmental paradigm of harmony with nature. How must the social, economic, and political order change in order to protect and enhance environmental quality and quality of life (broadly defined) for future generations? He tackled this difficult and complex question before it became popular to invoke the general issue of sustainable development, in Envisioning a Sustainable Society: Learning Our Way Out? In this brilliantly written work, published in 1989, he persuasively argued how average citizens must undergo significant value change, and how government in most cases must lead this effort. He suggested a model for new governance at the end of the book. Clearly, he was far ahead of his time in his effort to outline how to develop a sustainable society.
Professor Milbrath retired from teaching at Buffalo in 1991, but continued to write and to testify in a variety of public settings on environmental matters. In 1996 he published Learning to Think Environmentally: While There is Still Time. In this unusual book, he utilized a fictional conversation with a neighbor about important environmental issues and what we must do to develop a sustainable society. Time is running short, he told the neighbor, and we must act now. Unlike Professor Milbrath's previous publications, this book was intended for reading by the general populace. At first, SUNY Press was reluctant to publish the book because of its nontraditional approach. However, it has been widely adopted in many environmental studies, policy, and politics courses. After he retired, he also escaped Buffalo's snow and ice by spending three winter quarters teaching and lecturing at the University of California, Irvine, which he enjoyed immensely.
In addition to his exemplary research and publication record, Professor Milbrath was a model citizen for his department and university. Between 1969 and 1976 he directed the campus-based Social Science Measurement Center and the Social Science Research Institute. He also served as the associate provost of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Administration during the same period of time. Between 1976 and 1987 he headed the Environmental Studies Center, and later directed the Research Program in Environment and Society. He was extremely skilled at obtaining research grants, and funded many graduate students and some faculty during his career. In addition, Professor Milbrath served on numerous department search and advisory committees.
Throughout his career he traveled widely and lectured all over the country and the world. He frequently testified on environmental matters at a variety of levels. Fulbright fellowships allowed Professor Milbrath to teach in Taiwan and twice in Norway. He frequently reviewed book and journal manuscripts. In addition, he served on various editorial boards of major journals, including Political Psychology and Social Indicators Research. A graduate fellowship in environmental studies was created in his name in 2001 to honor his outstanding research and teaching contributions.
Professor Milbrath loved the outdoors. He especially enjoyed hiking, fishing, and sailing, and he always looked forward to spending the summers at his second homes at Cuba Lake and later at Crosswinds on Lake Chautauqua. He occasionally cross-country skied during the winter months.
Professor Milbrath was a wonderful colleague and mentor. He was extremely passionate about his work, spending many long hours conducting research and writing. As a consequence of his renown, graduate students were frequently drawn to the Buffalo Ph.D. program in political science in order to study under him. He was a conscientious and demanding mentor, consistently providing honest and prudent guidance to his students and the junior faculty in the department. He affected the lives and careers of many graduate students as well as junior professors. He also loved his family dearly. He was a devoted husband to his wife, Kirsten, and a doting father to his son, Erik, and daughter, Linda, and to his grandchildren. Professor Milbrath touched many lives. We all will be forever grateful for having the opportunity to have known and worked with him.
Sheldon Kamieniecki, University of California, Santa Cruz
Claude Welch, State University of New York at Buffalo
Felix A. Nigro
Felix A. Nigro, emeritus professor of political science at the University of Georgia, died in Athens, Georgia, on September 5, 2007. He was 93 years old.
Felix Nigro earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and earned his Ph.D. in political science from Wisconsin in 1948. A pioneering scholar in public administration, he had a distinguished career working with the National Youth Administration and other federal agencies. He worked extensively in Latin America for private industry, the U.S. State Department, and the United Nations. He twice held teaching positions at the University of Puerto Rico. After returning to the United States in 1957 he held teaching positions at Southern Illinois University, San Diego State University, and the University of Delaware, where he was the Charles P. Messick Professor. He was a faculty member in the department of political science at the University of Georgia from 1969 to 1982, and professor emeritus at Georgia since the time of his retirement. He was a visiting professor at Ryder College from 1982 to 1985. After his retirement he continued his work as a labor relations arbitrator.
He was the author, and later co-author, of two highly successful textbooks, Modern Public Administration (Nigro and Nigro) and The New Public Personnel Administration (Nigro, Nigro, and Kellough), as well as articles on civil service reform, collective bargaining, and management-labor relations.
He was born in Brooklyn in 1914 and was a life-long New York, and later San Francisco, Giants baseball fan. He is survived by his wife Edna, his son Lloyd, daughter Kirsten (both of whom have had successful academic careers), and several grandchildren.
I first “met” Felix Nigro when I adopted the first edition of Modern Public Administration for a course I was teaching. I met him in person when we became colleagues at the University of Georgia in 1981. I got to know and admire him in later years as an occasional lunch partner and companion, with our wives, at concerts on the University of Georgia campus.
With the death of Felix Nigro, the academic profession has lost a respected member and the public administration field has lost a very important practitioner and scholar.
Thomas P. Lauth, The University of Georgia
Note: A version of this article was originally published in the National Academy of Public Administration's “2007 Tributes.”
Åke Sandler
Åke Sandler, professor emeritus of political science, California State University Los Angeles, died January 2, 2008, at his home in Los Angeles. He was born in Stockholm, Sweden, July 7, 1913, the son of Rikard and Maja Sandler. Rikard Sandler was Sweden's prime minister from 1924 to 1926, minister of foreign affairs from 1932 to 1939, and the president of the General Assembly of the League of Nations for one year. During the latter Åke acted as his father's secretary-governor. His mother Maja was a leader and advocate for woman and children, and with her husband promoted adult education. In 1938 Åke left Sweden and emigrated to the United States, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1958. Åke received his BA and MA in journalism from the University of Southern California and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
In 1944–45 Åke was a war correspondent for The New York Times in Finland. He worked for many years as a journalist in Sweden and the United States, writing for several daily papers including Stockholm's Tidningen, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He also wrote articles for several magazines including Time, Life, Idun, Vi, Året Runt, Veckojournalen, and others. He published articles in the Western Political Quarterly and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and co-edited an American government textbook with Robert H. Simmons. Other contributors to the book included most of the rest of the department in 1965: Thompson Black, Jr., Donald Bray, Eugene P. Dvorin, Donald Kommers, Thomas McEnroe, Arthur J. Misner, Addison Potter, Robert H. Simmons, Benjamin W. Smith, Virgil Stevens, Donald Urquidi, and Tully Warren.
During the second world war he worked as a war correspondent in Finland for The New York Times. While writing for the Swedish press, Åke was president of the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents Association in 1954—the association later became the Hollywood Foreign Press Organization. He continued his writing to the end including a fortnightly column in the Swedish-American Vestkutsen. He was a member of the Los Angeles Press Club for many years and stayed in touch with the press community.
Åke was very active in student affairs on campus, sponsoring the Model United Nations and Pi Sigma Alpha. After retirement, he endowed a departmental scholarship fund that several faculty contributed to over the years.
He was active in the American Scandinavian Foundation of Los Angeles, assuming many offices, including two terms as president. In 1990 Åke and his wife Jane were named Scandinavians of the Year by the American Scandinavian Foundation of Los Angeles for their many contributions throughout the years. In 1976 he was knighted by King Carl Gustav with the Order of the North Star, First Class. He and his wife received the Swedish Council of America award in 1997 and the 1998 Eliason Merit Award, given by the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce—Greater Los Angeles to individuals who have contributed significantly to strengthening the relations between the United States and Sweden in the areas of commerce, culture, science, or the arts.
Åke's book, American Journalism, was published in Sweden and used as a textbook there. He collaborated and consulted with the prominent Swedish diplomat, Ungve Moller, who wrote a biography on Åke's father. Åke was made an honorary fellow in Severige-Amerika Stiftelsen, associated with the American Scandinavian Foundation. Åke was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to Sweden in 1976.
Åke was an active writer, a caring teacher, and a great friend to all who knew him. He and Jane loved music and were involved in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Åke was active on the CSULA campus and loved and appreciated by his students. They always enjoyed his stories about “The Great War” and World War II as well as the experiences he gleaned from his years as a war correspondent. He was an avid conversationalist and loved good amusing stories. His father always told him, “Never let your brain run on idle!”
Åke is survived by his wife Jane, their son Thomas Lee and daughter-in-law Sondra Thiederman, and granddaughter Krista and her husband Gil, and great granddaughter Maia.
J. Theodore Anagnoson, Donald Bray, Robert H. Simmons, California State University, Los Angeles
Susette M. Talarico
Those of use who knew and worked with Susette Talarico will remember her as an outstanding scholar, a devoted teacher, an extraordinary mentor, and an ebullient and faithful friend. She died on May 23, 2007, after a long and heroic battle with cancer.
Born in Danbury, Connecticut, on May 10, 1946, Susette's route to political science was a bit circuitous. After graduating as the valedictorian of her high school class, she joined the Sisters of Mercy for six years and earned her BA in education and theology at Diocesan Sisters' College (St. Joseph's College) in 1969. After leaving the convent, Susette earned her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Connecticut in 1976. She was assistant professor of political science at Saint Michaels' College from 1975 to 1977. She joined the political science faculty at the University of Georgia in 1977, a post she held until her retirement in 2006. There she was named the Albert Berry Saye Professor of American Government and Constitutional Law in 2002. She continued to serve as the political science graduate coordinator after her retirement.
In 1984, Susette became director of the University of Georgia's fledgling Criminal Justice Studies Program. She built it into a thriving and important presence on campus. By the time she retired it was one of the university's strongest majors. Her efforts were recognized nationally. In 1991, she won an award for Outstanding National Contribution to the Advancement and Professional Development of Criminal Justice Administration from the Criminal Justice section of the American Society for Public Administration.
Susette was an internationally known and respected scholar. She published over 50 books, journal articles, and book chapters focusing on criminal courts, sentencing, and civil litigation. Her books include The Social Contexts of Criminal Sentencing (co-authored with Martha A. Myers), which won an award for outstanding scholarship from the Society for the Study of Social Problems in 1988. In 2003, the University of Georgia Research Foundation awarded Susette its prestigious Creative Research Medal for work that she co-authored with Thomas A. Eaton on tort reform in Georgia. The data set that they created was an enormous and painstaking effort culminating in several journal articles, as well as reports to the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation and the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
An extraordinary teacher and mentor, Susette was known for her innovative approach to pedagogy and for her contributions to curriculum development. Countless undergraduates, graduate students, and junior colleagues are indebted to her for the time she spent and the sacrifices she made to further their careers. The quality of her work with graduate students is reflected by the fact that dissertations she directed were funded by the National Science Foundation and won the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.
Susette was also devoted to advancing the socialization of women into the academy. In the 1980s she served on the American Political Science Association's Task Force Project on Women and American Politics and chaired APSA's Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession. She played a pivotal role in mentoring junior women in her department and in the field, often times helping them with the submission of their first papers for publication. And, at a time when study abroad was less common than it is today, she helped to initiate student exchange agreements between the University of Georgia and British universities. She also lectured in China as part of an exchange of senior scholars, and taught at study abroad programs at the University of Oxford in England and in Verona, Italy.
Not surprisingly, Susette attracted teaching awards like a magnet. These awards culminated in her being named a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor (the highest teaching honor bestowed by the University of Georgia). More recently, the University of Georgia chapter of Phi Beta Kappa gave her its Love of Learning Award, and she was the 2007 recipient of the Teaching and Mentoring Award given by the Law and Courts section of APSA. She learned of the award before her death and read the award citation and testimonials from former students, but the formal presentation, accepted by her husband Rodger Carroll and their son Robert, took place posthumously at the 2007 APSA meeting in Chicago.
At the awards presentation, Elliot Slotnick, who had chaired the selection committee, read from the many testimonials that the committee had received. One of them paints an indelible portrait of Susette: “I graduated from the University of Georgia more than 25 years ago, I live 1,700 miles from Athens, I have no political or professional clout to speak of, yet she still sent my family a holiday card every year with a personal note. What does a card have to do with Dr. Talarico's success as a mentor and instructor? It illustrates her true genius as an educator: she cares about you as a student but, more importantly, she cares about your development as a person.”
The three of us who write this remembrance can attest to these qualities. Each of us owes important steps in our career development to Susette. We also saw first-hand how Susette used money from her endowed Saye chair to improve the academic life of her colleagues and students by hosting guest lectures, brown-bag presentations, and seminars on professional development. Her public spiritedness was legendary.
Upon Susette's retirement, the University of Georgia's political science department named a teaching award in her honor, and a former student of Susette's created an endowed fund in her name. The Susette M. Talarico Fund provides financial support to criminal justice and political science students as well as to political science faculty. Since its inception, dozens of other former students, friends, and colleagues have given in recognition of Susette's impact on their lives, and the fund continues to grow. We are proud to see that her legacy will continue for many years to come through this fund.
From 1999 to 2005 Susette edited Justice System Journal. She also chaired the editorial board of the University of Georgia Press and the board of editors of The Georgia Review, and was active throughout her career in professional organizations. These included APSA and its Law and Courts section (where she served in many capacities, including its executive committee). She was also actively involved in the American Society for Public Administration, the American Society of Criminology, the Southern Political Science Association, and the Academy of Criminal Justice Studies.
All of these many achievements illustrate only a part of what made Susette so special. She loved to sing (she was thrilled to appear on the stage of Carnegie Hall some years ago as part of a choral group), she devoured books, and she participated for many years in a play-reading group. She hosted countless dinner parties, loved good conversation, held gatherings for her students at her home, and spearheaded celebrations for her colleagues when they received tenure and achieved other successes.
When confronted with cancer, Susette fought bravely—continuing to work through the nausea and fatigue brought on by chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She became an advocate for fellow cancer survivors and returned to Capitol Hill as part of a delegation to ask Congress to postpone part of the Medicare Modernization Act, which would have reduced the amount of money reimbursed to doctors for the cost of cancer drugs. She survived her 17-year bout with breast cancer with grit, grace, and optimism. In the process, she did much to buoy the spirits of others.
Perhaps most important of all, Susette Talarico was a loving wife and mother, and a devoted sister and daughter. She was also a magnificently caring friend. She is survived by her mother, her two siblings, her husband and son, 19 nieces and nephews, 14 great nieces and nephews, hundreds of friends, and thousands of former students.
Susan Brodie Haire, John Anthony Maltese, Jeff Yates, The University of Georgia
Holt Bradford Westerfield
Brad Westerfield, Damon Wells Professor Emeritus of International Studies, died from Parkinson's disease on January 19, 2008, at the age of 79. He was a splendid teacher, scholar, and mentor.
Brad was a true-blue Yalie in the best of his university's tradition. He started with blue blood, as a descendant of William Bradford, Mayflower pilgrim and first governor of Plymouth Plantation. He was born into Yale and international relations in Rome on March 7, 1928, where his father, Ray Bert Westerfield, was on leave from his Yale professorship in economics. He attended the Choate School in Cheshire, Connecticut, as what he later called “a precocious nerd” who won the prize for highest academic standing and individual prizes in mathematics, history, Latin, and debate. Although he became strongly internationalist after the Japanese attack in 1941, he once admitted that during his Choate years he joined the isolationist America First Committee, as did such Yalies as Kingman Brewster, Gerald Ford, Sargent Shriver, and Potter Stewart. From Choate he entered Yale College, where in 1947 he earned his BA with highest honors in both political science and philosophy. On the way he won three prizes for public speaking, was president of the Political Union and the Debating Association, editor of his senior class yearbook, and news announcer and political commentator for Yale's new radio station WYBC during the wartime events of 1945.
From Yale he went to Harvard's Graduate School of Public Administration (later the Kennedy School of Government), earning a Ph.D. in 1952. His instructors and fellow students included McGeorge Bundy, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Samuel Huntington. He then taught at Harvard until 1956, with a year's break in Washington as an APSA Congressional Fellow where he served on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as assistant to Representative Brooks Hays of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. His first big book, Foreign Policy and Party Politics: Pearl Harbor to Korea, appeared in 1955. After a year of teaching at the University of Chicago he returned to Yale in 1956 as assistant professor, and became tenured associate professor in 1963 with the publication of his second big book, The Instruments of America's Foreign Policy. He became full professor of political science in 1965, and Damon Wells Professor in 1985.
It seems as though all the eligible members of his family (wife Carolyn, son Leland, daughter Pamela, brother Putney, and cousin Chaplin Barnes) hold degrees from one Yale school or another. If you think this blue bloodline means he was an eastern establishment snob, you could not be more wrong. To me, he was an informal mentor, first when he was junior faculty and I a graduate student, when he was a tenured professor and I a rough-edged and anxious junior faculty member from a factory town, and afterward when I became tenured with his invaluable support. In his frequent service on the Yale College Admissions Committee he helped break Yale's quota on Jewish students, advocated the admission of more African Americans, and then pushed for the admission of women. He regarded Edgar Allan Poe's story, The Masque of the Red Death, as a parable of the shameful indifference of the world's rich to its poor. At a dinner debate in New Haven, Brad vigorously denounced Sam Huntington on moral as well as empirical grounds for promoting a divisive “clash of civilizations” thesis.
As one might expect from his substantive knowledge and background in public speaking and debating, Brad excelled as an undergraduate lecturer with substance and style. Over the years he taught at least 10,000 students in the introductory international relations course (called simply “Westerfield” by the students) and one on intelligence and covert operations (called “Spies and Lies” by the students). As department chair in 1993 I nominated him for a teaching award in the social sciences. But, unknown to me, the dean had a new prize to give out that year, called the Byrnes-Sewall Award for the best teacher in Yale College—and Brad most deservedly got that. In 2003, Yale's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa gave him the DeVane Medal in appreciation for his lifetime of teaching.
As a teacher of graduate students he was deep in information, broad in epistemological and ideological perspective, and a great person to have on anyone's dissertation committee. When he became chair of our department, the administration announced we would be moving to newly refurbished offices in what had once been the Berkeley Divinity School. (He wryly commented that the move was consistent with the spirit of the time, “Out goes religion, in comes social science.”) Yale, however, was in penny-pinching mode, and skimped on the renovation. When he discovered that we were not to have overhead lights in our offices he protested. The administration replied that the halls would have overhead lighting. Patience exhausted, he snapped, “My faculty do not work in the halls.” We got the office lights. Yet he knew he wanted to be a scholar and teacher, not an administrator. When urged to be a candidate for directorship of the predecessor institution to Yale's current MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, he said simply, “If I wanted administration I would have gone into the government.”
His interest in the United States intelligence agencies went back to his Harvard days and made his teaching distinctive. Partly by personal contacts with people willing to talk to him off the record, and partly by an immense compilation of material from the public record, he became the most knowledgeable and analytical “civilian” authority on the intelligence institutions, especially the CIA. He never read spy fiction, even of John le Carré quality, so as not to “pollute” his mind. He never held or sought a security clearance, so that he could always speak and write freely. But he did not write much beyond editing Inside the C.I.A.'s Private World: Declassified Articles from the Agency's Internal Journal, 1955–92 (1995).
He was an immense source of information on the Vietnam War, an experience that by 1968 drove his permanent conversion from a cold war hawk to a dove—skeptical about what the government knew, how it knew, and what it did with its information. This was the second time in his life when he fundamentally changed his views on foreign policy. He learned. He questioned what the American government knew about the impending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and dug deeply. After 9/11, when we were discussing some of the conspiracy theories about that, he told me he had found real evidence of a serious cover-up about Pearl Harbor. He was no crackpot. But his health was failing, he was unable to write it up and withstand the political storm he knew would come, and none of his research materials survive him.
Yale prides itself on training future policy makers, and many of Brad's undergraduate students went on to prominence. They include President George W. Bush, Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman, two CIA directors, a director of the NSA, and a secretary of defense. Many are from the period when both he and his students were hawkish, and he made no apologies for teaching what he believed at that time. Still, he did not appreciate those who credited his old views as an excuse for their actions in the contemporary world. A September 2004 article in The Nation told how his former student Dick Cheney (briefly at Yale 1959–60) went around for many years telling Yale alumni chapters how inspired he was by Westerfield's course in which, according to Brad, “Allowing for grade inflation, his final grade would probably be a low B” now. Furthermore, “He's obviously incorrigible. He seems determined to go his own way, no matter what facts he is confronted with. It's disturbing.”
At the end of his small retirement dinner (mostly family) in 2001, we all sang “Bright College Years,” ending by waving our handkerchiefs to the words, “For God, for Country, and for Yale.” That epitomized Brad, with the words in the correct descending order.
Bruce Russett, Yale University
York Willbern
York Y. Willbern, professor emeritus of public and environmental affairs, professor emeritus of political science, and one of the founding members of the School of Public Affairs and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University, died in Seattle, Washington, in April 2007. Dr. Willbern was mentor and friend to generations of students and a highly respected colleague within his academic departments and throughout the campuses of Indiana University. In 1964 President Herman B. Wells bestowed upon Dr. Willbern the highest Indiana University academic rank of university professor of political science (now known as distinguished professor).
Dr. Willbern published extensively on the subjects of cities, public policy making, city and regional planning, and education for government service. He received the highest recognition of merit within the public administration academic profession, including election to the presidency of the American Society of Public Administration and election to the National Academy of Public Administration. His distinguished involvement in public service included work with various local, state, and federal government agencies.
“Since its founding in 1972, SPEA was the academic home for one of the legends in public administration: York Willbern,” reported Astrid E. Merget, SPEA's dean. “His academic credentials were unparalleled not only in the corpus of his scholarly work and his editorship of the flagship journal, Public Administration Review, but also in his leadership as president of the American Society for Public Administration. In helping to shape SPEA, he was eloquently adamant about demanding that the School spotlight in a free society—all as essential tenets of public and environmental affairs. He was a giant in the field with an enduring legacy that helped propel a young school to national and international stature over the years.”
John W. Ryan, Indiana University
Note: Originally published in the National Academy of Public Administration's “2007 Tributes.”
