Theodore J. Lowi, APSA President (1990–91)

Theodore J. Lowi, one of the social sciences’ most towering intellects of the 20th century and a renowned teacher for generations of Cornell students, died on February 7, 2017, at the age of 85. Lowi taught at Cornell for a total of 49 years, first joining the faculty as an instructor in 1959, leaving in 1965 for a position at the University of Chicago, and returning in 1972 to become the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions. He became the John L. Senior Professor Emeritus in 2015.

Lowi’s approach to political science lay at the nexus between American political institutions, political history, and public policy, yielding insights that remain prescient in light of recent developments. In his classic book, The End of Liberalism (1969), he argued that in the United States the rule of law and the power of representative government were being displaced by the ascendant interest group liberalism. It enabled organized private interests, particularly business groups, to benefit from the expanding administrative state, to the detriment of the unorganized. As the public interest suffered as a result, he explained, “cynicism unavoidably curdles into distrust.”

Lowi considered Congress to be “the first branch,” the most democratic and representative, and he viewed the aggrandizement of the executive branch—at Congress’s expense—with great concern. In his book, The Personal President: Power Invested, Promise Unfulfilled (1985), he argued that several factors in combination—citizens’ growing expectations of government services, the weakening of the role of grassroots parties in the campaigns, and the increased capacity of modern presidents to use technology to communicate directly with the public—were giving rise to a “plebiscitary” character to the office, as presidents generated ever-greater expectations among the electorate. Yet such hopes were inevitably dashed, as the limits of the office in the realm of domestic policy meant that presidents predictably failed to deliver on the scale of their promises. They would turn instead to their greater powers as “commander-in-chief,” engaging in high-risk overseas adventurism. Their approval ratings would in time plummet, and the public’s disillusionment with government generally would deepen.

In two of his most famous and oft-cited essays (“American Business, Public Policy, Case-Studies, and Political Theory,” World Politics, 1964, and “Four Systems of Policy, Politics, and Choice,” Public Administration Review, 1972), he put public policy front-and-center as the topic that could enable us to understand politics generally. It launched his hallmark “arenas of power” framework, based on the idea that “a political relationship is determined by the type of policy at stake, so that for every type of policy there is likely to be a distinctive type of political relationship.” These “types” were not categorized in the typical fashion of emphasizing the substantive topic policies addressed, but rather they were sorted analytically according to the relationship they establish between society and government, leading to the distinction between distributive, regulatory, and redistributive policies. As Lowi explained, “Each arena tends to develop its own characteristic political structure, political process, elites, and group relations.”

Lowi called for scholarship that makes politics its primary focus. In his formulation, this meant studying power—not simply as it is possessed by individuals or groups, but rather as it emanates from “the state,” through formal rules and procedures, resources offered, and the authority through which decisions are made. He considered public policy to epitomize “government-in-action,” showcasing political relationships that reveal how power is distributed and navigated. Troubled by the growing divide in political science between empirical studies and theoretical work, he advocated simultaneous attention to both as the most promising way to further understanding of politics. The challenge for the scholar, as he saw it, is to be able to step back from a case or set of cases, studied in an in-depth manner, and to analyze the broader patterns and relationships at work, those which illuminate how power operates more generally.

Lowi’s scholarship bears an enduring influence on the study of political science. He helped spur the development of historical institutionalism, in particular the approach to studying the United States known as “American political development.” His ideas also gave rise to the theory of “policy feedback,” which is utilized by numerous contemporary scholars of both American and comparative politics to examine how policies created at an earlier point in time shape subsequent politics by influencing the activity and goals of ordinary citizens, lawmakers, and interest groups.

Lowi became well known at Cornell for his riveting lectures in the introductory undergraduate course in American government and politics, which he taught almost continually throughout his years on the faculty. He delivered them with his characteristic southern drawl and the zeal and intensity of an evangelical preacher. The course attracted a packed house, in some years enrolling up to 500 students. His charismatic presence combined with the clarity, complexity, and originality of his ideas more than filled the cavernous Bailey Hall.

His belief that undergraduates could gain from exposure to the policymaking process, witnessed firsthand in the nation’s capital, prompted him to develop the idea of the Cornell-in-Washington program, which commenced in 1980 and continues to this day. He also played a leadership role in founding the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs (CIPA) in the 1980s, and served as one of the program’s core faculty.

Lowi mentored generations of graduate students. He encouraged them with his southern colloquialisms and tips such as, “Remember it’s not a book; it’s a dissertation;” and “Don’t get it ‘right’, get it ‘written.’” He served as an early and dedicated mentor to women and to people of color, and was honored in 1996 with the award for an “Outstanding Mentor of Women in Political Science,” given by the Women’s Caucus for Political Science.

Lowi was born and grew up in Gadsden, Alabama. His father, Alvin Rosenbaum Lowi, founded a chemical company and his mother, Janice Haas, taught piano. The family, which included four additional children, attended the local Jewish temple. He began his studies as an undergraduate at Tulane University, but had to drop out when he became ill; he subsequently attended Michigan State on a music scholarship, specializing in the oboe and graduating in 1954. He earned his PhD at Yale University in 1961.

Lowi’s star rose quickly. APSA named him the top political scientist in 1978. He became the organization’s president in 1991, and served as president of the International Political Science Association from 1997–2000. He received numerous honors throughout his career, ranging from a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967–68; to the Richard Neustadt Award for the best book on the presidency in 1985, for his book The Personal President; to the Harold Lasswell Award of the Policy Studies Organization in 1986 for substantive contribution to the study of public policy. Besides his numerous scholarly books and articles, he became the author of a Norton textbook on American government beginning in 1976, with several coauthors joining in over the years on subsequent iterations; the current version remains widely adopted annually.

Lowi was married to the former Angele Marie Daniel. The couple had two children, Anna and Jason. They lived not far from the Cornell campus. Lowi would sometimes run from home to the Arts Quad, stopping repeatedly along the way to engage in spirited conversation with colleagues and students.

When Lowi completed his year as president of APSA, he delivered an address in which he shared “the pains of discovery” gleaned from his “pilgrimage” of listening in on the discipline in that role. “At the end of my pilgrimage, I have come to the conclusion that among the sins of omission of modern political science, the greatest of all has been the omission of passion. There are no qualifications for membership in the APSA, but if I had the power to establish such standards, they would be that a member should love politics, love a good constitution, take joy in exploring the relation between the two, and be prepared to lose some domestic and even some foreign policy battles to keep alive a positive relation between the two. …I speak for the pleasure of finding a pattern, the inspiration of a well-rounded argument, the satisfaction in having made a good guess about what makes democracy work, and a good stab at improving the prospect of rationality in human behavior.”

Theodore Lowi’s ideas and the force of his character inspired students of politics at Cornell, throughout the discipline of political science, and well beyond. His scholarship, teaching, and mentorship were consistently characterized by an ability to analyze politics from an original point of view, one with a sharply critical edge that deeply questioned assumptions and was ever mindful of the public interest. That intellectual sharpness was embodied within a personality of tremendous warmth, vibrancy, and verve. A stalwart critic, an ever-creative thinker, a force of nature emanating energy and joy—this was Ted Lowi as scholar, teacher, mentor, and colleague.

Lowi’ wife Angele predeceased him by two years. He is survived by his children, as well as his siblings Alvin Jr., Bertram, Jan Horn, and Betty Baer.

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Henry L. Bretton

Henry L. Bretton, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the SUNY College at Brockport, died July 31, 2018, at age 102, in Albuquerque, NM. He was born May 18, 1916 in Berlin, Germany, the son of Hans and Betty Bismark, distant relatives of the Iron Chancellor. His wife of 56 years, Marian More Bretton, died in 2007. He was also predeceased by his son, Alexander More Bretton. His daughter, Elizabeth Sinclair More Bretton, MD, of Albuquerque, and her husband, John F. Lorio, survive.

Henry emigrated to America in 1938 and worked for a time in an iron works in Connecticut. He was inducted into the army early in World War II and was assigned to Military Intelligence in the European Theater of War. For security reasons, the army required that he change his name. He was attached to an armored reconnaissance squadron in General Patton’s Third Army. He was awarded the Bronze Star for having located and arrested behind enemy lines a German army officer who was accused of having ordered the execution of American soldiers who had surrendered. After the war, he was transferred to the Secret Intelligence Section of the Office of Strategic Services. He left the service with the rank of 1st Lt. (Reserve) Counter Intelligence.

He entered Yale University as a second semester freshman and graduated with honors in a year and a half. Then, he earned an MA and a PhD in political science from the University of Michigan in two and a half years. His doctoral dissertation studied the foreign policy of Gustav Stresemann. The department chair, James K. Pollock, was a German specialist. So, in order to join the Michigan faculty, Henry changed his specialty to African politics. He approached the study of African politics with an eye untainted by the naïve romanticism that afflicted many observers of early postcolonial African politics. He published three well-received books on that topic.

In 1969 he left his full professorship at the University of Michigan to accept appointment as the first Distinguished Professor on the faculty of the SUNY College at Brockport. He was a meticulous, demanding teacher and continued a productive scholarly life. He published a book on international relations and one on political economy plus many scholarly articles, book chapters, and conference papers. He was also active in college governance, including chairing the University Awards Program of SUNY’s Research Foundation, a brief spell as acting Social Sciences Dean, and a term as President of the Faculty Senate. Henry was a generous benefactor of the College at Brockport, including endowment of a scholarship. A lounge in one of the classroom buildings bears his name.

While on the faculties at Michigan and Brockport, Henry served as visiting professor at Innsbruck in Austria, Accra in Ghana, Nairobi in Kenya, Vienna in Austria, and the US War and Naval Colleges. He also conducted seminars in international relations at the University of Ohio and Dar Es Salaam, in Tanzania.

He retired from Brockport in 1985 and he and Marian moved to Albuquerque, NM, where their two children resided. In retirement, he continued to play bridge, earning a number of master’s points, until he had passed the age of 100. He published two autobiographies, the second at age 100. He was one of the most senior members of the APSA and the Academy of Political Science.

Jacqui Briggs

Professor Jacqui Briggs, Head of the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Lincoln died on July 3, 2018, following a short illness. She was mother to Imogen and partner to John. Jacqui was full of integrity, warmth, energy, kindness, and humor, all of which were immediately apparent to those who engaged with her. These qualities saw her have enormous impact within the discipline of political science, and on her students and peers.

Raised in Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, UK, she remained close to her family throughout her life. Always seen as “bright” by her cousins, she was a natural leader and organizer, and it was her experience of growing up in a close community affected by the politics of Thatcherism which nurtured her passion for political engagement and equality. Her undergraduate studies began in Aberdeen, and discovering an early flair for politics, she transferred to Leeds University in 1985 to specialize in political studies. After graduating from Leeds, she attained a PGCE from Huddersfield and then went on to complete a PhD in politics at the University of York. She was the daughter of a miner who was out for the duration of the British Miners’ Strike in the 1980s. Her PhD subsequently drew on both her personal experience and the wider political climate of these times, and her doctorate explored the Miners’ Strike, not only as a significant politicizing event per se, but particularly what this meant for women. This work was published in her well received 1998 monograph Strikes in Politicisation.

From 1986 she taught politics in further education and then moved on to teaching in the higher education sector in 1992. Jacqui worked at the University of Lincoln for over 20 years and became Head of the School of Social and Political Sciences in September 2012. Her work with her department was truly impressive. She led a department where staff felt valued, respected, and encouraged in their work. She was one of those rare people who were able to support colleagues to achieve their potential and her department was a happy, vibrant place to work. In 2017, she became Professor of Politics and was the University of Lincoln’s first Chair in Teaching and Learning. Her inaugural lecture last year was the best attended inaugural lecture of the College of Social Sciences, attended by students and staff past and present, as well as people from the wider community, clearly demonstrating the high esteem in which she was held. Jacqui was popular and well respected, always enthusiastic and prepared, always offering insightful contributions and bringing her own brand of self-deprecating, often mischievous, humor to situations. The YouTube video of her 2017 inaugural lecture is Jacqui’s account of her introduction to gender politics in the “university of life,” courtesy of her work at the “crumpet” factory and her promotion to the “jam tart” line, and is a perfect illustration of both her politics and wit.

Jacqui’s passion for social justice and politics was also evident in her research on women in “real life” politics. In this work, she focused on the ways in which women experienced being politicians, the obstacles they encountered in their work, and the ways in which they navigated the political territory they were situated in (2000, Local Government Studies; 2005 Representation). This issue was also explored in her article published in Politics in 2000, with Catherine Bochel, where they asked, “Do Women make a Difference?” Through detailed interviews with female politicians she offered an analysis of the extent to which “being” a female politician equated with representing women’s interests. And what her work importantly demonstrated was, first, that there is no such thing as a homogeneous female politician. Each female politician comes with their own experiences, ideological positions, and motivations. And while the history of feminist thought reminds us to understand the importance of this diversity of the category of “woman,” Jacqui’s work was radical and novel in its empirical analyses of this fundamental issue as lived by female politicians. Second, her work demonstrated, empirically, that irrespective of the lack of homogeneity in the category of women, simultaneously, to have a diversity of women in legislatures did bring difference in political perspectives. And it is at this point of profound insight into the complexity of gender politics, as theory and practice, that Jacqui made significant research contributions to the field.

The other strand to her research achievements was concerned with engaging young people in politics, which led to her 2017 monograph Young People and Participation: Teen Players. She was concerned with the gender-specific challenges which women faced in political participation (2014) and she was a keen advocate of lowering the voting age, in her research outputs (see also 2010, Social and Public Policy Review) and in her practice.

Jacqui’s commitment to young people also led her to write a textbook Doing Politics which was explicitly aimed at undergraduates and those interested in taking their study of politics up in higher education. This was a book driven by a commitment and desire to engage young people in politics as citizens as well as students. This she wrote at a time when to write a textbook was something that you did not do if you wanted to advance your research career. And yet Jacqui was never put off by the individualism that has come to characterise some aspects of academia. In fact, the opposite, Jacqui was also keen to draw people in, to encourage them to discuss, to think, and to participate. Her desire to engage young people in politics also extended beyond the written word. In the classroom her students said, for example, that she was “an inspirational lecturer who encouraged us to think independently; the hallmark of true political instruction.”

Jacqui was a wonderfully generous friend and colleague, and an inspiration to many students–particularly those who were first generation in higher education. With over 30 years of continuous lecturing experience, Jacqui’s commitment to political education is self-evident, and she did it so well–a former student recently described how Jacqui “brought the world of politics to a lecture room and made it light up.” Her passion for politics and her encouragement of young people’s political participation extended far beyond the classroom, and her energy and enthusiasm meant she was so much more than an academic. Her passion for politics, both as a discipline and an activity, led her to undertake numerous public engagement events.

From sitting on the board for the national Campaign for Social Sciences, to organizing pop-up social science events for the local community, Jacqui consistently strove to build links between academia and the wider community. Indeed, one of the last things Jacqui did was to give a talk at Lincoln Central library asking, “is politics still a man’s world?” In many ways this was classic Jacqui, posing an important question and participating in a community event. Over the years, Jacqui also made numerous TV and radio appearances, commenting on European, general, and local elections as a political pundit. She was also asked to comment on feminist theory and female exploitation–or as she used to enjoy recounting, she was once asked to comment on topless car washing services in Skegness!

Jacqui was elected to the UK Political Studies Association in 2005. The PSA is the international professional body in the UK for the promotion and study of politics. In 2011 she took on a key leadership role as Vice-Chair of the PSA–and was held in high esteem for her capacity to lead and shape the direction of the professional body. Her broad knowledge and oversight of the discipline meant that it was no surprise when in 2014 she was invited to be a member of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Benchmarking Review group that was to revise and ensure the currency of the benchmarking statement for politics and international relations–an important and significant document that continues to guide and shape politics provisions nationally at the higher education level. During her time on the government’s Education and Skills committee, she developed and promoted initiatives around: quantitative methods; creating an alumni network and links to relevant professional bodies, including A level examination bodies; the Economic and Social Research Council Festival of Social Science; the Higher Education Academy; and support for Teaching and Learning Specialist Groups (PSA and APSA). Whilst in this role, she was also pivotal in establishing important outreach work in schools. This included politics workshops for sixth form students considering studying politics at a university–as well as support for politics teachers through the establishment of a new PSA Teachers’ Network. Her passion for young people’s participation also saw her play a role as co-convenor of the PSA’s Young People’s Politics specialist research group. In recognition of her huge and significant contributions, Jacqui received the prestigious Award of Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences for her contribution to the subject in 2012.

Jacqui was also committed to the research aspect of pedagogical development. From 2009 to 2015 she was coeditor of European Political Science, where she played a leading role in establishing the “Teaching and Training” section as a strong, independent part of the journal. She pioneered the shaping of this section with diligence and collegiality, as on “retiring” from her term at the helm, she left colleagues with a large amount of material, enabling a great deal of “learning space” for the new editor. The editors had noted that the reputation she established continues to allow EPS to continue attracting strong teaching and training submissions. As her former editorial colleague on the journal said “Jacqui always delivered. You didn’t need to worry about her part of the journal, indeed, that part of the journal seemed to go on autopilot while Jacqui was at the helm.”

Throughout her career, Jacqui saw politics as about people above processes and her passion for this guided her academic writing, her departmental leadership, and her engagement with the profession and her students. Jacqui was in no way an “ivory tower” academic–she had a passion for outreach and was regularly promoting community events to encourage political activism; whilst on holiday in 2017 in New York she broke with the scheduled itinerary to join a band of feminists on an anti-Trump demonstration.

Jacqui was a true role model. She showed working class students it was possible to study, young people it was important and exciting to engage in politics. And she showed female academics that it was possible to be yourself, have a sense of humour, and at the same time be an impressive academic. Jacqui’s personality and generosity touched everyone who met her and is there in the words she has written. Her legacy is long lasting, and she will be sorely missed.

Ronald A. Francisco

Ronald A. Francisco, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas (KU), died on September 10, 2018 at the age of 70 after a long illness. He was with his family at their new home in Oklahoma.

Francisco was a noted scholar of protest, repression, and social movements in political science. His lasting contributions include several books on collective action issues, including The Politics of Regime Transitions and The Dynamics of Conflict. His most recent publications included Collective Action Theory and Empirical Evidence (2010), and a series of articles and book chapters. During his career his research was funded by a Fulbright Fellowship, a Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship, and the National Science Foundation.

Perhaps most notably, Francisco spent countless hours gathering data for public use on protest activity and government repression around the world. Ron’s research in public documents was wide-ranging and he often shared tidbits with colleagues based on their research interests, sometimes inspiring collaborations and new research projects.

Students at KU often praised Francisco’s courses and his teaching style and methods. He was always viewed as fair, but rigorous, demanding that his students engage the world around them. Francisco was also known for his dry humor in the classroom, leaving long-term impressions on his students. His excellence in teaching was recognized through a number of university-wide educator awards over the course of his more than 40 years of teaching, including a W.T. Kemper Teaching Fellowship Award in 1999.

Ron also had interests and skills beyond professional ones. He was an avid reader, reading well outside of his adopted discipline. He became a student of finance, even writing a book on personal finances specifically for academics, Finance for Academics: A Guide to Investment for Income. He was always happy to give investing advice to fellow faculty members and his students. Ron also became an accomplished runner, keeping an intensive regimen until late in life.

Francisco attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1966 to 1968 and then studied at the University of Vienna, Austria, from 1968 to 1969. He returned to the University of Wisconsin in 1969 and completed his BA in 1970. From 1970 to 1972 he completed an MA before attending graduate courses at the Free University of Berlin from 1972 to 1973. He completed his PhD in political science in 1977 from the University of Illinois. Francisco joined the faculty in the Department of Political Science at KU in 1974 with ABD status as an assistant professor. From 1976 to 1980 he also held an assistant professor position in the Soviet and East European Studies Department at the University of Kansas. From 1980 to 1993 Francisco was an associate professor of political science and Russian and East European studies. In 1994 he was promoted to professor of political science and Russian and East European studies. He served as chair of the Department of Political Science from 1994 to 1998. Francisco retired from KU in 2014 and was granted Emeritus Professor status.

Francisco is survived by his wife Deborah and son Chris.

Doris Graber

The death of our dear colleague and friend Professor Doris Appel Graber, on February 17, 2018, at the age of 94 left an important gap in the field. While a review of her accomplishments offers a review of not only a relentless intellectual that identified where political systems need more attention, but also a pioneer who guided many others with her exemplary scholarship. Doris Graber was a founder and leader of the study of political communications and a leading exponent and mentor for increasing the number of women scholars into the fields of political science and political communications. She enrolled in Washington University in St. Louis at the age of 15, later receiving the BA and MA degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, and subsequently receiving a PhD in international relations from Columbia University. Doris’s longtime position was an appointment in the Political Science Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, first hired in 1963, then as a full professor from 1967–2012. In addition Professor Graber received many visiting and short-term appointments in the United States and beyond including at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, as a research associate at the Center for the Study of American Foreign and Military Policy, and as the Lombard Professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

As a young scholar, Doris was especially interested in international law and also in journalism, working as a part-time reporter and feature writer for local news media while a student. Her dissertation, entitled the Development of the Law of Belligerent Occupation 1863–1914: A Historical Survey, included many original texts that were later cited in many publications. After receiving her PhD in international law, sharpening her interest in journalism, Doris turned her brilliant intellect to focus on the application of social science methods to individual perception and organization of stimuli from the mass media, while continuing to teach international law and American foreign policy and writing on various current political topics as a secondary foci. Enamored of social science methods, Doris conducted a number of studies regarding individual information processing of media stimuli, emphasizing affective, symbolic, and perceptual factors, using multi-methods including experimentation and panel studies. Working in the late 1960s and into the 1970s, Doris’ research increasingly turned to the role of television and its effect on political attitudes and behavior.

In the early 1970s, Doris understood that the emerging field of political communications needed organization in terms of stating a coherent research agenda and presenting its research findings in a fashion linked to one another. Accordingly, she published Mass Media and American Politics, now in its 10th edition, a text similar to those in constitutional law, urban politics, economics, and many natural science disciplines which serves both as an introduction and as a mapping of an entire field. Doris was also the founding editor of the journal Political Communications, the leading research publication in that field.

Many leading universities and academic associations have recognized Doris’s contribution to political science research. Her long list of awards include the 2009 University of Illinois Alumni Association Inspire Award, Honorary Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Jiaotong University, the 2007 International Society of Political Psychology Nevitt Sanford Award for Professional Contributions to Political Psychology, the 2006 National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar, Distinguished UIC Scholar Award and the University Scholar Award, the 2003 Goldsmith Book Prize for best academic book on news media and government, and the 1999 American Political Science Association Frank J. Goodnow Award for Service to the Profession. She also served as the president of the International Society for Political Psychology, as part of the APSA’s Political Communication Section, the Political Communication Division of the International Communication Association, the Midwest Public Opinion Association, and the Midwest Political Science Association. She also served as the vice president of APSA, and of the International Communication Association’s Political Communication Division. The APSA Political Communication Section established the Doris Graber Outstanding Book Award in her honor.

Doris was unrivaled; there were almost no such woman disciplinary leaders in American political science before the early 1970s, besides perhaps Hannah Arendt, Judith Shklar, and Gwendolyn Carter, until the early 1970s when Elinor Ostrom and Doris Graber emerged as leaders of their respective fields. Three well-known personal examples for Doris capture some largely neglected career barriers confronting the women in political science of Doris’s generation. First, her graduate fellowship was rescinded because married women were not eligible, and Doris Appel had married Thomas M. Graber (1917–2007) while she was a student. Thomas was another giant in his field. He published 28 books and 175 articles in orthodontics. Secondly, her first doctoral dissertation was refused by a new director, who substituted for the original director, who had died. Doris then wrote a second dissertation regarding military law and the occupation of Germany after 1945, which was subsequently published as a book. Third, early in her career as a researcher, Doris chose to submit and publish using the initials “D. A.” to circumvent reviewer prejudice against women. Doris turned her challenges into accomplishments and was extremely concerned to mentor younger women as researchers and teachers. She became one of the pillars of the University of Illinois at Chicago and was an extremely generous individual. While being a world-known researcher and prolific writer, Doris was also a committed teacher. Tom and Doris had about 65 years of marriage with remarkable mutual support while raising five children: Lee, Thomas, Jack, Jim, and Susan. Even after the age of 85, Doris pushed the boundaries of her research field by questioning whether and how “magnetic resonance imaging techniques” better integrated media and communication studies and worked to facilitate interdisciplinary inquiries in this area. The brilliance of her intellect and personality and care for students and junior scholars made Doris Graber an incredible scholar and inspiring mentor with an ever-lasting impact.

Joel Grossman

Professor Joel Grossman, a revered mentor and scholar of law and politics for over a half-century, died at his home in Baltimore on June 2, 2018 at the age of 81 following a battle with cancer.

Professor Grossman spent the first 33 years of his career at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was a professor of political science and an adjunct professor of law. In 1996, he took emeritus status at Wisconsin and joined the political science department at Johns Hopkins University, becoming an emeritus professor there in 2013; in 2006, he became an adjunct professor of law at the University of Maryland School of Law. He had also been a Visiting Fulbright Professor of Politics, University of Strathclyde (1968–69) and a Visiting Professor, Faculty of Law, Stockholm University (1973).

Joel achieved excellence in many dimensions of the profession, a versatility that contributed to his winning the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Law and Courts Section of APSA. He combined scholarship, teaching, mentoring, and service in a distinguished manner that serves as a model of citizenship for the profession. As attested to by the numerous comments of his colleagues and students across the land who benefitted from his assistance, Joel had a special generosity of spirit as a colleague, mentor, and collaborator. He also had both academic and personal passions for constitutional law and the freedoms it protects, demonstrating both passions in his scholarship and commitments.

Joel was as dedicated to his family as he was to his profession. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Mary; two daughters, Joanna and Alison, a law professor and attorney, respectively; and a son, Daniel. He was blessed with five grandchildren, who were always the central feature of his annual holiday letter to friends and former colleagues.

Born in Brooklyn, Joel earned his bachelor’s degree in political science in 1957 from Queen’s College, CUNY. Upon graduating from Queen’s he ventured west to Iowa, ultimately receiving his master’s and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of Iowa (1960, 1963). From 1965–66 he was a Fellow in Law and Political Science at Harvard Law School. Throughout his career, Joel embodied the best qualities of the east and the Midwest, his two geographic homes that he held in high regard. As a New Yorker, he never lost his love of a good corned beef sandwich, and one of his rituals with students and new colleagues was a trip to the local deli called Attman’s, in Baltimore. And when back in Wisconsin, he enjoyed a good brat.

During his youth, Joel developed a lifelong love of sports, becoming a Yankee fan though living in the land of the Dodgers—no doubt to the chagrin of his neighbors. Upon becoming a professor at Madison, he added the Badgers to his sport allegiances. He scored a pair of season tickets for Badger football when a second deck was added to Camp Randall Stadium, seats one of us (Downs) inherited when he headed back east. After watching the Badger football team lose, year after year, he headed to Pasadena decked in Badger red when the team made its first trip in 32 years to the Rose Bowl in 1994. But his greatest sports love was basketball, the second type of “court” he loved and about which he knew so much. During his stint at Madison, he assumed the unofficial title of “godfather” of a long-standing basketball group consisting of men and women UW faculty members and other players from around town. At 6’4” and blessed with Brooklyn attributes, Joel, “the Goose,” was a force to be reckoned with on the court; his desk at Johns Hopkins featured a picture of him dunking a basketball. In 1990, his team played a benefit game at the UW Fieldhouse against the Lady Badgers. We won in an upset, with Joel providing a key score.

Professionally, Joel ably straddled different approaches to legal scholarship, and helped introduce a more empirical approach to that endeavor to the Wisconsin political science department. Lawrence Friedman described this as “converting public law study outside the law school into something that didn’t resemble a cheap imitation of legal education.” Joel made his scholarly mark primarily as a leading voice in the behavioral revolution that influenced political science and public law research in the post-World War II era; but befitting a thoughtful mentor who worked with different scholars, he also maintained interest in institutional, doctrinal, and normative constitutional law scholarship. At Wisconsin, he became a leading figure in the interdisciplinary law and society movement that was closely associated with the university, working with such figures as J. Willard Hurst, Lawrence Friedman, Marc Galanter, Stuart Macaulay, and David Trubek, to name a few.

In the 1960s, the University of Wisconsin ran a series of summer seminars funded by NSF for graduate students and young scholars to introduce them to what became known as the law and society approach. Joel served as director of that seminar for two summers. Lynn Mather, emerita professor of law, University of Buffalo, described her experience at one of those seminars as shaping her career-long approach to scholarship and teaching. She attributes that in part to the warm, welcoming environment that Joel was instrumental in creating at the seminar. Joel’s commitment to the law and society approach was reflected in his role in creating one of the very first interdisciplinary undergraduate law and social science majors, what was then called Law and Behavioral Science. He served as editor of Law & Society Review for four years, 1978–1982, and on three separate occasions, twice in Madison and once in Baltimore, took on the thankless task of chairing local arrangements for the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association.

Joel was the author or editor of five books and numerous articles. A sampling reflects his range of interests and skills. His dissertation at Iowa became the 1965 book, Lawyers and Judges: The ABA and the Politics of Judicial Selection, a model of law and politics research that examined the different ways in which interest groups, especially the American Bar Association, interacted with the US Attorney General’s office regarding presidential nominations to the federal bench.

Joel also coedited two editions of the widely read Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (1992, 2005), and was cowriter and coeditor (with Richard Wells) of the widely used constitutional law text, Constitutional Law and Judicial Policy-Making (1972; 1980, 1988). This influential text highlighted his ability to mix a social science approach to constitutional lawmaking with an understanding of how doctrinal and normative adjudication also influence the development of case law. In 2003, he published “The 200th Anniversary of Marbury v. Madison: The Reasons We Should Still Care About the Decision and the Lingering Questions It Left Behind.”

The scope of Joel’s impact is reflected in the many visible and responsible service positions he held over the course of his long career, including: Chair of the Department of Political Science, UW–Madison, 1975–78; Chair of the Wisconsin Judicial Commission, 1985–87; Vice President of the Midwest Political Science Association, 1989–91; Chair of the University Committee (Faculty Executive Committee), UW–Madison; and Acting Chair of the Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, 1999–2000. Joel exemplified the ethic of institutional citizenship, time and time again demonstrating his commitment to his own university as an intellectual polis and to the ideals of the profession.

Formal retirement in 2013 did not mean retirement in a de facto sense. Slowing down was just not in Joel’s DNA. He continued teaching an innovative course on the Supreme Court until his final days, a course he relished describing to his many contacts and friends. And he kept contributing his service to his institution and the profession. Recognizing emergent challenges to academic freedom and academic free speech in higher education, Joel chaired a 14–member Task Force on Academic Freedom in 2015 that was responsible for drafting a statement guiding academic freedom for the university community. In a letter to the Hopkins community announcing the Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom, the provost singled Joel out for special thanks: https://provost.jhu.edu/about/academicfreedom/. When it came to constitutional freedoms and liberties, Joel taught what should be taught, and walked the walk.

Crawford Young, a former colleague who came to Madison with Joel and two other assistant professors in 1963, confirmed Joel’s dedication to “walking the walk” in an email he sent to us about Joel. “Civil liberties were more than an academic specialization for Joel; they were a strongly held commitment. I recall some entertaining tales of Joel’s application of these principles during his period of military conscription. Throughout his UW career he often raised issues of possible infringements in university policies.”

As mentioned, Joel’s mentoring influence extended beyond his many students. In a comment he wrote on the law listserv email system, Sheldon Goldman of Amherst said of Joel, “he truly was a mensch. I cannot think of anyone in the field who mentored more graduate students who themselves became major figures in our field. And his own scholarly contributions had a lasting effect on the discipline.” Goldman also mentioned how Joel once accomplished something perhaps unprecedented: managing as an editor to get a dozen or so authors paid an honorarium even after SAGE Publications decided to cancel a series of books they had signed up to write. “Joel, god bless his good legal mind, negotiated the cancellation of the contracts and saw to it that each author received compensation on the order of several hundred dollars. This was the only time in my entire professional career that I was paid not to write a book.”

Jennifer Culbert, who joined the political science faculty at Johns Hopkins several years after Joel had moved there, recalled that one of the things she learned from Joel through his mentoring was how to be a mentor herself to her graduate students. Malcolm Feeley echoed this comment, “Joel taught me how to be an adviser.”

Joel also translated his interpersonal acumen to the classroom, where he reigned as a superb teacher of both undergraduate and graduate students, winning major university-wide teaching awards at both Madison and Hopkins. At Wisconsin, he won the 1988 Emil Steiger Distinguished Teaching Award; and in 2007 he was awarded the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award at Hopkins. Bernard Cohen, a former UW–Madison chancellor who was already teaching in political science when Joel came on board, put the matter in poignant words: “I still come across people who took Joel’s public law courses years ago and remember them, and him, as significant mileposts in their education. That’s better than a name on a building.”

Martin Sweet, who took Joel’s undergraduate constitutional law course before receiving a law degree from Minnesota and a PhD in political science at Wisconsin after Joel had departed for Hopkins, recalled that “Joel insisted on not only teaching the doctrine and historical context of the seminal Court decisions, but he wanted his students to understand the people behind the decisions. He reveled in introducing us not just to the then current lineup of Brennan and Marshall, and the stalwarts of Holmes and Brandeis, but Frankfurter and Douglas too! People mattered to Joel, and he mattered to us.” Kate Ross, a student in Joel’s constitutional law class as well as his undergraduate seminar on courts and policy before earning her law degree at the University of Michigan, told us, “Professor Grossman was beloved by undergraduate political science students at UW–Madison. He made constitutional law accessible with his thoughtful insights, common-sense interpretations, and dry wit, and he leaves behind a legacy of students like me whose careers in law and politics were ignited by his teaching. Professor, you will be sorely missed.”

One of Joel’s qualities as a graduate adviser was the way he encouraged students to find a dissertation project that excited them; he never sought to steer his students toward his own specific approach or interests. Malcolm Feeley described this as “letting his students do what they wanted to do.” This approach made Joel attractive as a graduate adviser. In his time at Wisconsin, he was the principal dissertation adviser for 22 students at Wisconsin and another six at Johns Hopkins. Joel and Mary welcomed his students, and his colleagues, to their home on many occasions, where they would be served a feast, often including Caesar salad that Joel insisted had to include anchovies, and be stimulated by the conversation.

Several former graduate students whom Joel mentored at Wisconsin provided representative comments to the law listserv upon learning of Joel’s passing. Bradley Canon, now an emeritus professor at Kentucky, remarked, “Joel taught me that there was a world of law and politics beyond the Supreme Court—an eye-opening and useful thing to know…He was quite a mentor.” NYU’s Christine Harrington wrote, “He first taught me what he called ‘the difference between politics and political science,’ which turned out to be a critical, though challenging distinction. He taught me how to comprehend law as a social science field and how to carry out research and teach by his many wonderful examples. I will deeply miss Joel but never forget his passion for our intellectual communities and interdisciplinary projects, or his uniquely kind manner, encouraging so many of us while ‘just checking in.’” Kansas University’s Charles Epp, whose dissertation at Madison under Joel’s direction won the APSA’s Corwin Award as the best dissertation in the field of constitutional law and public law, reminisced, “Joel was a wonderful mentor: generous, kind, immensely knowledgeable, humorous, and wise. His was a presence like no other, and he will be deeply missed.” Joel’s advice to his students went beyond the substance of their work; Paul Passavant, now at Hobart and William Smith College, recalled that Joel told him that “the best dissertation is a finished dissertation.”

As the authors of this tribute, we would like to conclude by echoing the many praises we have read about Joel. We could not have imagined a more helpful and trustworthy mentor, colleague, and friend. Joel exemplified the best of a great generation in political science, and his memory and continuing influence will remain dear to us.

Young Kun Kim

It is very difficult to say a final goodbye to a decades-long friend, especially one whose essence suggested that his better angels had taken up permanent residence in his gentle soul.

Young Kun Kim became my colleague in 1972. He became my friend over decades of faculty meetings, shared rides to and from CUNY and our Upper West Side homes, hot chocolate at Zabars, and mutually commiserating with amusing but often serious discussions of our political science programs and our professions, sharing sake and closeness while leavening life’s difficulties with friendship.

I got to know Young Kun by small degrees—his modesty, the nuance of his judgments, and his acknowledgement of human frailty, including his own.

He was no stranger to adversity. Born in Korea and losing his father at an early age, he was sent by his mother at age four to study Chinese classics—mainly Confucian classics—under a Buddhist monk in a Buddhist temple in Dopyeong-ri, a village not far from his native village. He commuted there from home for four and a half years. As a young man, he personally felt the brutal lash of foreign occupation, yet completed college at one of Korea’s most prestigious centers for learning—Seoul National University.

He then immigrated to the United States, leaving the comfort of familiarity behind on his way to building a new life—one of scholarship, family devotion, and community service. He received his PhD in political science from Columbia University and was a devoted husband to Hei-Gyoon and a devoted father to two sons—Minsoo Kim and Jinsoo Kim.

Young Kun was a scholar’s political theorist, full of understanding and perspective. Whether the subject was Freud or Theodor Adorno and the Frankfort School, he could be counted on for knowledge and thoughtfulness.

He translated the works of scholars in Korean, English, Japanese, and German. He specialized in the history of Western political thought with an emphasis on German political ideas since the eighteenth century. And he also had wide-ranging and abiding interests in classical Chinese philosophy, and modern Chinese, Japanese, and Korean social and political thought—an unusually wide-ranging oeuvre.

Young Kun Kim spent the last years of his scholarly life working on a significant and paradoxical project, for a Buddhist, the importance of life’s “small pleasures.” As a psychoanalyst, I know that there is little “small” about them.

Young Kun Kim’s Buddhist identity, developed as a very young child, teaches that ego and worldly treasures are ephemeral. Yet here is the adult scholar, a lifelong student of Buddhist theory, arguing for the importance of life’s “small pleasures.” How freethinking. How cosmopolitan. How so very much like Young Kun Kim.

The world is a much poorer place without Young Kun Kim living in it. Yet those of us who have had the good fortune to be his friends and colleagues are immeasurably richer for it. His life reflects a deep sense of integrity, responsibility, and gentleness and serves as a reminder of what we can all be more capable of, if we try.

I will miss you my friend.