It is with the deepest regret that I report the death on January 15, 2004, of Wilma L. Rule who collaborated with me on a number of research projects relating to the election of women and members of certain minority groups to elective office in the United States and other nations. She was a long-time member and secretary-treasurer of the Section on Representation and Electoral Systems of The American Political Science Association whose members continue to appreciate her research and service to the profession.

Wilma was an adjunct professor at the University of Nevada, Reno at the time of her death. She was born in Basin, Wyoming, and received her B.A. in political science and in journalism in 1949, her M.A. in political science in 1950 from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Hawaii in 1968. In addition, she held a post-doctoral fellowship at the Inter-University Consortium for Political Research at the University of Michigan and engaged in additional post-doctoral work in Organization Behavior at Northwestern University. She served as assistant professor of political science at Northern Illinois University, 1969–1975.

Her influential article—“Political Implications of Gender Roles: A Review of the Literature”—was published in the American Political Science Review in 1974 and was a product of her life-time research focusing upon the various types of electoral systems in terms of how they facilitated or hindered the election of women and underrepresented minorities to public office. Her theoretical work had a practical dimension; i.e., promotion of electoral reform in the United States and other nations throughout the world. The underpinning of her theoretical interest was empirical research devoted to explaining why, at the time, women members of the United States House and Senate constituted only 5% of the membership of Congress in contrast to women occupying nearly 40% of the seats in each Scandinavian Parliament.

Wilma was the author of 28 articles in professional journals, presented more than 25 papers at professional meetings in the United States and abroad, and was co-editor with Joseph F. Zimmerman of United States Electoral Systems (1992), Electoral Systems in Comparative Perspective (1994), and The U.S. House of Representatives: Reform or Rebuild? (2000). Her interviews of Russian legislators and political leaders served as the basis of Russian Women in Politics and Society co-edited with Norma C. Noonan of Augsburg College in Minnesota. She was working on her latest book—Equal Gender Politics: 21st Century—at the time of her death and consequently we are deprived of her insight and findings on the subject.

Wilma was married to Irving Krauss, a sociology professor, who shared her special interest in electoral reform and was a constant and staunch supporter of her research. They lived for 10 years in Hawaii and for 16 years in Illinois prior to retiring to Alpine County, Nevada on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Irving and several cousins are survivors.

Wilma was a dedicated researcher who always had a positive attitude. This was reflected in the fact that much of her research was conducted after she suffered serious health problems. She was committed to assisting others through her research and civic activities in Alpine County where, among other activities, she served as a member of the county's redistricting committee in 1991. Her professional colleagues and members of the electoral reform community will miss her penetrating analysis of the various electoral systems, her service to the Association, and her collegiality.