Daniel R. Grant, a member of the Vanderbilt University Political Science Department, 1948-1970, died May 25, 2022. His extraordinarily productive 98 years featured abiding commitments to academic and Christian excellence. Dan was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He grew up nearby on the campus of Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, where his father was the president, 1934-1949.
After graduating from Ouachita in 1945, he began his graduate study in political science as a member of an early cohort of the Southern Regional Training Program, an innovative effort to educate aspiring public servants in which several flagship universities in the region participated. Dan received his master’s from the University of Alabama and entered the PhD program at Northwestern University, where he studied with such disciplinary luminaries as Charles Hyneman and William McGovern. After completing his dissertation, The Governor of Arkansas as Administrator, and earning his doctorate, Dan joined the Vanderbilt faculty.
Historians of our profession will recall the reorientation the behavioral revolution wrought in the post-war era. Hired by a traditionalist, D. F. Fleming, Dan successfully navigated the transformation of the department undertaken by the incoming chair, Avery Leiserson. Indeed, Dan was the only non-tenured assistant professor when Leiserson arrived ultimately to be awarded tenure.
Dan’s departmental niche was state and local. He co-authored a textbook that went through six editions. His narrower focus was metropolitan government, and his laboratory was Nashville-Davidson County. He drafted the original plan for consolidation of city-county offices and services that was eventually instituted in 1962. This experience gained him an international reputation as a consultant for communities considering this reform. He founded and directed Vanderbilt’s Urban Research Center. He published his research findings in books he authored and co-authored, in journal articles, including the Journal of Politics, Western Political Quarterly, Public Administration Review, Urban Affairs Quarterly, Law and Contemporary Problems, National Civic Review, National Municipal Review, and Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, as well as numerous chapters in edited collections.
On campus, Dan was widely respected by his faculty colleagues and highly regarded by the Vanderbilt students, especially the graduate students. He was accessible, friendly, and always eager to help with their research projects. He willingly embraced the committee responsibilities that shared governance entailed. His unsurpassed expertise regarding local government structures and issues made him the obvious resource for fellow faculty and staff seeking information and insight. He was active in the Southern Political Science Association, presenting papers and chairing panels at annual meetings, serving on the executive council, and editing the “News and Notes” section of the Journal of Politics.
In 1958-1959, Dan broadened his horizons, travelling to Bangkok, Thailand, where he taught municipal government and planning at Thammasat University and consulted with the city government. This experience gave him exposure to disciplinary currents in comparative government and political development and kindled in him an interest in and commitment to international study that would expand significantly in the years to come.
A distinctive feature of Dan’s disciplinary identity was its integration with his devout Christian faith. He was a deacon and Sunday School teacher at Nashville’s First Baptist Church. Southern Baptist Convention officials regularly called on Dan to serve on boards and commissions, and to speak at denominational gatherings. Dan targeted his fellow believers for instruction in Christian citizenship. His 1968 book, The Christian and Politics, represents this dimension of his scholarship.
In 1969, at the peak of his career in our discipline, Dan received an invitation to return to Ouachita Baptist University as president. His departmental colleague, Leiper Freeman, memorably attributed Dan’s decision to accept the offer to “God, Father, and Alma Mater.” Dan’s tenure as Ouachita’s president, 1970-1988, featured remarkable advances in facilities, faculty recruitment, faculty development, and financial stability. Drawing on his professional expertise in public administration, he combined visionary leadership with managerial skill. He was a careful listener who weighed and balanced competing perspectives and prioritized deliberation and consensus in decision making. He understood that policies were rarely self-executing, and he was attentive to the challenges of implementation. He excelled in maintaining positive denominational relations without compromising academic standards.
Dan maintained his political science bona fides throughout his presidency. He taught the “State and Local” class for several years, and he continued to revise his textbook. He was a founding member of the Arkansas Political Science Association, delivering the keynote address at the inaugural meeting. He also served on the editorial board of the Arkansas Political Science Journal. His weekly column in the Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine, “One Layman’s Opinion,” provided him a forum for his guidance on Christian citizenship. He initiated the international studies program at Ouachita that now bears his name, along with that of his beloved wife, Betty Jo, who merits additional mention in this memorial. She typed and proofread his manuscripts, and she compiled the indices for his books. Her strong support and sage advice were invaluable assets for Dan throughout their 72 years of marriage.
After retiring as president, Dan continued to enhance his sterling professional reputation. He maintained a departmental office and taught or co-taught an occasional course. He revised his textbook for its sixth edition. Generations of students came by to interview him for class projects and papers, and to seek career advice. He was a faithful attendee at faculty colloquia and guest lectures, where he could always be counted on to ask a penetrating question about subject matter being presented. He continued to attend annual meetings of the Arkansas Political Science Association. Four decades after his inaugural keynote speech, he reviewed and updated his remarks for the assembled membership.
The commitment to public service present at the outset of his career found expression in a tour of duty as a gubernatorial appointee to the Higher Education Coordinating Board. He also joined corporate and denominational boards and commissions. Having been instrumental in establishing the Consortium for Global Education in which 48 Baptist colleges and universities participated, he led the group for a decade, travelling around the world establishing exchange agreements and programs.
After a tornado damaged downtown Arkadelphia in 1997, city officials consulted with Dan in planning for reconstruction. Always active in the community, in his 90s he was still leading the singing at the Rotary Club meeting every Friday. He served as a deacon, sang in the choir, and participated in local missions’ projects at First Baptist Church.
Dan Grant was a renowned global educator whose student body extended beyond campus classrooms to his fellow academicians, to public administrators and the citizens they serve, and to people of faith seeking to relate politics and religion. His legacy looms large.
