Ronald F. Inglehart, 86, died on May 8, 2021, after a long illness. One of the world’s most cited political scientists, Inglehart published over 400 peer-reviewed articles and authored or coauthored 14 books during his career. His books have been translated into many languages, and his theories have been analyzed and studied in most global and regional contexts.
Inglehart was born on September 5, 1934 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was raised in Glencoe, Illinois. He earned his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University, and his master’s and PhD at the University of Chicago. In 1963–1964, he was a Fulbright Scholar at Leiden University in The Netherlands. He taught political science from 1966 to 2021 at the University of Michigan, where he was the Amy and Alan Loewenstein Professor of Democracy, Democratization and Human Rights, and Research Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Social Research. He also was the founding director of the Ronald F. Inglehart Laboratory for Comparative Social Research at the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Inglehart’s research transformed the way that social scientists understand the role of human values and cultures in societies worldwide. In his seminal work, The Silent Revolution (1977), he used extensive survey evidence to argue that, in contrast to their parents and grandparents, younger generations growing up in secure and affluent post-industrial societies, developed “post-materialist” values. This orientation, he wrote, “emphasizes self-expression and quality-of-life over economic and physical security.” These notions have become commonplace in the social sciences, largely because of Inglehart’s groundbreaking research. He refined his ideas of societies’ changing values and culture.
“He was truly a pioneer in using survey data to measure and compare culture across countries. Thousands of researchers have used data from the World Values Survey (WVS), which he founded and directed until recently. Widely referenced and very influential, too, are his conceptual contributions, including the value dimensions he identified and used to situate each country in a two-dimensional cultural map,” says Mark Tessler, Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan.
Inglehart helped found the Euro-Barometer surveys and is recognized internationally for his work as the founding president of the WVS, conducting longitudinal representative national surveys of over 100 societies since 1981. For these last four decades, the WVS has gathered data about the values of ordinary people, and what they think about their lives, societies, economies, and politics.
“Inglehart’s ideas have been central to our understanding of public opinion and cultural change,” says Ken Kollman, Director of the Center for Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. “He had a remarkable way of analyzing cultural change across time and space that helped people contextualize their own societies and compare countries.”
A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Inglehart received honorary degrees from Uppsala University in Sweden, the Free University of Brussels in Belgium, Leuphana University in Lueneburg, Germany, and was a co-winner of the 2011 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, the most prestigious international academic award in political science. He was a visiting professor or visiting scholar in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, Nigeria and New Zealand, and served as a consultant to the US State Department and the European Union.
In collaboration with Christian Welzel, University of Leuphema, Germany, Inglehart proposed evolutionary modernization theory, the idea that as sectors of society become more comfortable materially, they abandon traditional cultural values and orient their everyday lives and their politics toward securing personal freedoms, autonomy from traditional power structures, and modern ideas of a well-lived life.
Says Welzel, Inglehart “was in each and every aspect a role model: as a thinker, researcher, teacher, supervisor, mentor, companion, friend, father, husband—in short as a human being. We lose a great thinker and beautiful mind.”
Working with Pippa Norris, Harvard University, Inglehart applied these concepts to understand several contemporary issues. This included religious decline worldwide, and the impact of existential security for these developments. Using WVS data, Sacred and Secular chronicled a global decline in religious belief and practice, especially in affluent societies. With Norris, he also examined transformations in gender equality and roles for women and men. More recently, he also sought to understand the rise of populism and the Trump phenomena, arguing with Norris in Cultural Backlash that surges these developments were manifestations of a backlash among social conservatives feeling status anxiety, triggered by cultural shifts moving post-industrial societies in a more liberal direction. In Inglehart’s latest book, Religion’s Sudden Decline: What’s Causing it, and What Comes Next, he uses global data to explore under which conditions religiosity declines and its implications for the future.
Ron “was a pioneer in expounding bold conjectures about social change which captured the contemporary zeitgeist and then also gathering large-scale cross-national survey data monitoring attitudes, values, and behaviors, to test the comparative evidence for key claims in these social theories” says Norris.
Despite his prominence, Inglehart was known to be modest and down-to-earth, generous with his time, and an excellent citizen of his department and university. He chaired or served on numerous PhD dissertation committees, as well as many other committees. He was also a dedicated instructor and taught courses ranging from large introductory lecture classes to research seminars for doctoral students. Above all, he was warm and friendly, always cheerful, full of good ideas, and always ready to help.
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“In addition to creating the intellectual and organizational infrastructure for decades of work in the social sciences,” says Nancy Burns, Warren E. Miller Collegiate Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan, “Inglehart trained generations of scholars in comparative politics. These amazing students—former graduate and undergraduate students who lead the world over—were inspired by Inglehart's breadth, by his warmth and generosity, by his deep commitment to teaching and mentoring, and by his passion for ideas.”
The impact of Ron’s commitment to giving back to these scholars is immeasurable. If you would like to make a gift in memory of Ron, his family has asked that donations be directed here.
Ron is survived by his wife Marita R. Inglehart, his sister Jane Kase, his daughters Sylvia Evers, Elizabeth Inglehart Miller and Rachel West, his sons Ronald Charles and Milo Inglehart, and nine grandchildren.
—World Values Survey Association
Tobe Johnson
Dr. Tobe Johnson was born in Pratt City, Alabama. He was a 1954 graduate of Morehouse College. In 1963, he was the first African American to earn a PhD in political science from Columbia University. Dr. Johnson taught at Morehouse College for 59 years before retiring in 2018. He is the longest-serving faculty member in the school’s 150-year history. He served as a key advisor on Mayor Maynard Jackson’s 1973 campaign. Because of his impact on the city and the nation, October 21, 2019 was proclaimed Dr. Tobe Johnson Day in the city of Atlanta. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Goldie, his daughter, Cheryl, his son, Tobe Johnson III, and his grandchildren Naim Johnson-Rabbani and John Johnson.
ALVIN THORNTON'S REFLECTION
Like Professor Tobe Johnson, I am a son of Alabama; he of urban Birmingham and me of rural Roanoke. I graduated from Morehouse College in 1971, 17 years after Dr. Johnson’s graduation. For me, he was among the many “Candles in the Dark” at Morehouse that nourished my academic and cultural development as a person and student.
To many, the State of Alabama is considered the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement because of Rosa Parks’ brave stand for justice and the resulting 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in which four Black girls were murdered, and the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Long before we would meet in 1967 as professor and student, our lives were shaped by these historic events in Alabama.
The early life stories, academic careers and community service of Morehouse political science professors Robert Brisbane, Abraham Davis, and Dr. Johnson provided examples of purpose-driven lives that I would emulate as a political scientist. I took several courses from each of them (i.e., Dr. Brisbane—Political Theory; Dr. Davis—Constitutional Law; and Dr. Johnson—Scope and Methods). Interestingly, my first faculty position at Morgan State University in 1974 included teaching a Scope and Methods course. Of course, I drew on my experience as a student of Professor Tobe Johnson.
Professor Johnson shared with his students the journey he took from life as a young Black boy in a racist “Jim Crow” rigidly segregated community in Birmingham to becoming the first Black person to receive a PhD in government (political science) from Columbia University in 1963, and the determination, hard work, and sacrifice required to become and succeed as a college professor and administrator. His journey resonated particularly with me and gave me confidence that I would be able to complete the journey on which I had embarked as a Morehouse student, become a Morehouse Man, and make a service and leadership contribution.
In 1971, there were very few Black people with PhDs in political science on college and university faculties. Dr. Johnson was among the visionary early political scientists who mentored and developed students, like Professor Hanes Walton, who would become political scientists and address the restricted scope of the pedagogy of the political science discipline, especially as it applies to the status of Black people in the American political experience.
During Professor Johnson’s 59 years as a Morehouse political science professor, he mentored many individuals who emerged to serve and provide local, state, national and international leadership. Among them are Hanes Walton, Distinguished Professor of Political Science; John Hicks, Senior Foreign Service Officer; L. Tyrone Holt, attorney; Jeh Johnson, former US Secretary of Homeland Security; Randall L. Woodfin, current mayor of Birmingham, Alabama; and Maynard H. Jackson Jr., Atlanta's first Black mayor. I am honored to be among Dr. Johnson’s students who followed in his footsteps and became university professors, political science department chairs, and academic administrators. For those of us who did, Dr. Johnson was an example of how to administer effectively with limited resources, mold and enhance students’ intellectual confidence and self-concept, and provide community service.
I agree with the Atlanta City Council proclamation that "Through his roles as educator, nurturer, influencer and shaper of public policy, Dr. Tobe Johnson was a true American treasure." I thank him for being a tall and bright “Candle in the Dark” for me and so many others. May he continue to rest in peace with the ancestors.
—Alvin Thornton, Howard University
ALVIN B. TILLERY, JR.'S REFLECTION
I became a professor in the fall of 2001. At the start of each of the last 20 academic years, I have called Dr. Tobe Johnson on the telephone to utter the same five words: Thank you for my career! I made these calls because I can say without absolute certainty that I would have never become a professor without the outsized role that Dr. Johnson played in my life. During my four years as his student and research assistant at Morehouse College, he taught me how to read critically, write with discipline, and how to work in archives and in the field. I can say with 95% confidence that his letters and phone calls opened doors for me and made connections that I would have never attained without him. I can also say with 100% confidence that I would have dropped out of graduate school had it not been for the support that he gave me during my first two years at Harvard. I remember calling him after my first month in the program to complain about all of the racial insults I had experienced on campus and how isolated a felt as one of a handful of African American students matriculating in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at that time. In every one of those conversations, he would allow me space to vent and then gently remind me that he had been the only African American student in the social sciences during at Columbia when he pursued his PhD in the 1950s. “Tillery,” he would say, “if I could survive that experience, you can certainly make it as one of a handful.” He would also say: “We’re all down here rooting for you to make it!” Dr. Johnson’s support made all of the difference in the world to me in those moments. Although he is gone now, and I won’t be able to call him this fall, I will always remember what he did for me. Thank you for my career, Dr. Johnson! I will also say that the amazing thing about Dr. Johnson is that I know that there are probably several hundred Morehouse alums who owe him just as much thanks for the interventions that he made in their lives. This is why whenever he would lead the faculty up the hill during commencements, the crowd would spontaneously erupt into a chant of Tobe, Tobe, Tobe!
—Alvin B. Tillery, Jr., Northwestern University
MATTHEW B. PLATT'S REFLECTION
There are three key moments that characterize both my relationship to Dr. Johnson and why he was such an institution at Morehouse. I honor Dr. Johnson because he so freely gave of himself to Morehouse, he spent a career fighting for Black men, and he was dedicated to systematic study as a way of life. First, when I was a student, I had the privilege of serving as a teaching assistant for Dr. Johnson's famous course, "Scope and Methods of Political Science." One of our duties as TAs was to create the reader that went along with the course. Dr. Johnson gave us this huge folder of chapters and articles, and it was our job to go to Kinkos and have them make bound copies for every student in the class. There was not a line item for TAs or supplemental instructional material in the departmental budget. Dr. Johnson paid for everything out of his own pocket. That is a small example of a larger truth: if Morehouse had a need, Dr. Johnson was there to provide what he could. Second, in the fall semester of 2013 I was in a tough position. I had been denied for promotion; a year prior I was the subject of scandal because 40% of my class was caught cheating on their final exam; and none of the over 50 schools that I had applied to had invited me for an interview. The discipline had decided that I was no longer a wise investment, but Dr. Johnson still believed in me. He convinced the provost and the department to hire me for a position that did not technically exist. For over 50 years at Morehouse that was Tobe Johnson’s life: fighting for Black men that a lot of other people had turned their backs on. The last key moment occurred during my second year as Morehouse faculty. I was struggling as the new instructor for Scope and Methods, so I was asking for advice. Dr. Johnson asked a simple question, “What kind of self-assessment have you done?” I had not done anything, so he responded that it would be hard to come up with a solution for a problem that I did not understand. That was Tobe Johnson. He was teaching me the same lesson as a colleague that he taught me as a student. Passion and dedication are important, but good decisions are rooted in systematic evidence. He was a true political scientist.
—Matthew B. Platt, Morehouse College
MATTHEW HOLDEN, JR.'S REFLECTIONFootnote 1
In 1961 I was indirectly “introduced” to Tobe Johnson. When completing my dissertation, and in need of an academic job, I wrote 42 job-seeking letters. In those days, all that a letter got you was a chance to be looked over. Most recipients did not respond. However, the president of Morehouse College at the time, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, did. His reply was “no,” but he said if I were in mathematics, he would be interested. A few years later, Tobe Johnson joined the faculty at Morehouse. That was my indirect introduction to Tobe Johnson. (Nearly 20 years later, Tobe and his wife, Mrs. Goldie Johnson, did me the honor of putting me at Dr. Mays’ end of the table at a dinner party they held at their home).
Before the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957 there was not much money from the federal treasury going to universities and very little money for university travel. Political science got very little indeed. (As of result of the Sputnik launch, the US Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958. With the NDEA came federal funds). However, Tobe Johnson and I were among the small handful of African American political scientists who went to a lot of conferences. To get to conferences, to get to present papers, to be commentators, and to get papers published in high prestige journals was all very important.
By 1965 APSA held its second Public Affairs Reporting Seminar at Mont Tremblant in Quebec.Footnote 2 Tobe and I, along with Russell L. Adams (a political scientist who was teaching in the DC area at the time) were among the invitees. I do not know who paid the bill, but Evron “Kirk” Kirkpatrick, who was the executive director of APSA at the time, was the key person who made it happen. We were there because Kirk always showed an interest in African American political scientists and their careers. There was no affirmative action policy at the time. Kirk just did it without ever announcing it. (The increasingly strict and idealized institutional procedures had not yet come to the country or APSA). Somewhere in the APSA files, there is a photograph. It includes Tobe, me, Kirk, and NBC/MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who at the time was a news reporter for a Philadelphia radio station, and other seminar participants.
From 1963 to 1966, I was on faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. Tobe Johnson spent at least one semester there as well, possibly more. I honestly do not remember whether he was considering a move. But he and his wife Goldie spent some of their time together with my wife and me, as assistant professor couples would do. What I most remember about this time, is that I asked him to read a paper I had written. His critique was friendly, honest, and devastating. The key issue was “constituency.” I wanted to write about “constituency and administration.” He thought my definition of “constituency” was so broad as to be devoid of analytical utility. Fortunately, I was too hard-headed to follow his advice, with the result that the paper got published in the APSR in 1966.Footnote 3
In closing, I have discussed Tobe’s depth and stringency with at least one Morehouse undergraduate, now a professor elsewhere. The reason is that there is so much scholarly knowledge and so much practical experience embodied in the world of my friend Tobe that I hope and pray that some of it will be committed to forms from which new people will learn hereafter. For example, Tobe founded the Morehouse College urban studies program and helped to establish Black Studies programs around the country.Footnote 4 He published an interpretive analysis of Black Colleges (HBCUS).Footnote 5 “During his nearly six decades as a beloved faculty member, he helped emerging political scientists and future lawyers, elected officials, diplomats, judges, policy-makers, and thought leaders contextualize the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, September 11, and the Black Lives Matter Movement.”Footnote 6 He was even acknowledged by President Obama in his commencement address at Morehouse College in 2013.Footnote 7 Tobe also held “leadership roles with MARTA, Leadership Atlanta and the Atlanta Regional Commission”Footnote 8 and was an advisor to Maynard Jackson’s mayoral campaign in 1973.Footnote 9 Tobe received numerous awards for his teaching and service, and he was a prolific mentor. Tobe Johnson’s students have the potentiality of sharing Tobe’s legacy with the world and I am grateful for that.
—Matthew Holden, Jr., University of Virginia (emeritus) and University of Illinois (retired)
Sean Kay
Dr. Sean Kay, the Robson Professor of Politics and Government at Ohio Wesleyan University, died peacefully in his sleep of a heart attack on November 13, 2020 at the age of 53. His time among us was cut tragically short, yet the contributions he made in just over two decades will live on through his remarkably diverse scholarship and the memories of his colleagues, friends, family, and students.
Sean Kay was born in the San Francisco Bay area in 1967, during the Summer of Love. His family later moved to Ohio, and Sean attended Kent State University, where he earned a BA in political science in 1989. After earning an MA at Kent State in 1991, Sean moved to Brussels, Belgium where he served on the staff of the North Atlantic Assembly and earned another MA in International Relations from the Free University of Brussels in 1992. He then earned a PhD in political science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1997. Sean worked as a Research Fellow with the Institute for National Strategic Studies of the National Defense University. He then moved on to academic appointments with Dartmouth College and Rhodes College, before joining Ohio Wesleyan’s University’s Department of Politics and Government in 1999. This represented a continuation of a family connection to OWU, as his grandmother and great-grandmother were Ohio Wesleyan alumni. Sean rose quickly through the ranks at OWU, with promotion to associate professor in 2002 and to professor in 2006. He was also named the Robson Professor of Politics and Government.
Sean Kay’s main teaching responsibilities were classes in international relations, US foreign policy, and European politics. His classes were popular and he was well known for motivating students to greater rigor in their research papers through a mixture of thorough critique and encouragement. Sean was awarded OWU’s Bishop Francis Kearns Award for outstanding teaching and was the first recipient of the University’s Libuse L. Reed Endowed Professorship. Numerous tributes from his former students especially praise his mentorship. He gave generously of his time and encouraged them in their studies and their careers. His former students have gone on to graduate studies in top universities and careers with leading academic institutions, government agencies, and international organizations.
Sean was the Director of the International Studies Program, through which he guided one of the most popular majors at OWU and contributed more broadly to OWU and the community through organizing numerous lectures by prominent leaders in academia, government, and the military.
Sean also became an internationally recognized scholar in his own right in the field of international relations. He published over 40 articles or chapters and nine books. Early in his academic career, Sean established himself as a leading expert on NATO, publishing the book NATO and the Future of European Security, as well as numerous articles and chapters in edited volumes. Sean expanded his scholarship into international security and American Foreign Policy more broadly, publishing an article in the journal Survival on “America’s Sputnik Moments” and writing the textbook Global Security in the Twenty-First Century: The Quest for Power and the Search for Peace, which has been through three editions. Sean frequently contributed to discussions on contemporary challenges in US security policy in various public lectures, roundtables, op-eds, and media interviews.
What is perhaps most remarkable about Sean’s scholarship is his amazing breadth as he forged academic connections to diverse interests in his life. His wife, Anna Marie, is from the Republic of Ireland, and the Kays often visited their Irish relatives. Sean turned these connections to a book, Celtic Revival? The Rise, Fall, and Renewal of Global Ireland. He also took OWU students on a memorable trip to Ireland in which they met the Taoiseach. Sean had a life-long love of music, especially the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Grateful Dead. Indeed, he was an accomplished guitarist and singer, and his performances at the local bar The Backstretch were popular with faculty, students, and the Delaware, Ohio community. Sean linked his academic and musical interests with the book Rockin’ in the Free World! How the Rock & Roll Revolution Changed America and the World. His research for the book included interviews with world famous musicians, such as Graham Nash, David Crosby, George Clinton, and Sinead O’Connor. Sean’s voluminous scholarship was recognized with Ohio Wesleyan’s 2020 Welch Award for Scholarly Achievement.
In his final years at OWU, Sean rekindled an interest in environmental politics that first developed when he was a river guide with his father, who campaigned to preserve the Stanislaus River in California. One of Sean’s final publications was an article in Boatman’s Quarterly Review in which Sean wrote about a rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, reflecting that the hardest part was missing his wife and three daughters, about whom he felt immense pride. He is survived by his wife Anna Marie, their three daughters Cria, Siobhan (who joins OWU’s graduating class of 2021), and Alana, and his mother Jennifer Kay.
—James C. Franklin, Ohio Wesleyan University
William R. Keech
William Robertson Keech (“Robby” as a young man, to distinguish him from his father “Bill,” and later “Billy” or “Bill”) earned his bachelor’s degree at Bucknell University (1961) and his MA and PhD (1965) at the University of Wisconsin. He was a member of the political science faculty at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill from 1965 through 1996; a professor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University from 1997–2006, and thereafter Research Professor of Political Economy at Duke University.
Bill first came to Durham in the 1960’s, where he did field research for his dissertation (later published as a book, The Impact of Negro Voting, in 1968). He was active in the Civil Rights Movement, standing out even then: he was six feet, eight inches tall, and an obvious Yankee agitator in the segregated South of the early ‘60s. He took first a temporary position, and ultimately rose to tenured full professor, at UNC Chapel Hill in the years 1964–1996. As a result, he and his spouse Sharon Keech have since been avid, sometimes loud, fans of UNC basketball.
He moved to take the position of head at the internationally recognized Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University in 1997. In 2006 he retired from Carnegie Mellon, and moved back to North Carolina, living in north Raleigh to be near his son Dan and his family of spouse Cindy and three boys Cody, Tommy, and KC. Bill and Sharon’s daughter, Sarah, lives in New York City and has worked in financial services and more recently shifted to health care, for which she found a passionate vocation. Moving back to North Carolina, Bill was eagerly recruited to take a position of Research Professor at Duke in the Political Science Department, where he taught classes on political economy and development and became a favorite professor of a generation of students interested in problems of economic policy.
Bill was devoted to his life as an academic, publishing four books and many refereed journal articles. Each of the books reflected Bill’s growth and professional evolution; he was blessed with a restless, probing intellect and addressed himself to problems of racism and voting rights, the organization of political institutions, and later the working of macroeconomic policy and the monetary system. In order to accomplish the latter, Bill recognized in the early 1980s that he didn’t know enough economics to be able to do the work he wanted to take on, and used a precious academic sabbatical to take the economics sequence at the University of Michigan. This combination of humility and ambition was characteristic of Bill’s approach to academics generally, and for that matter to life.
Bill will be remembered by his academic colleagues for his willingness to listen, think, and find legitimate reasons to praise the work of others. He will also be remembered for his ability to see the big picture when others might have focused on narrower academic or methodological controversies. For these reasons, when he spoke, he deserved and received the attention and respect of others.
One of Bill’s most recognized publications was “A New View of Political Accountability for Economic Performance,” published in the American Political Science Review in 1985 (with Chappell). By that time many studies had connected economic outcomes aggregate voting results or presidential popularity. Chappell and Keech argued that voters might be more thoughtful about how they judged politicians than some political scientists thought at the time, without fully embodying the rather strict (and unrealistically sophisticated) “rational expectations” view then common in the economics literature. Bill crafted an argument that that laid out the case voters might punish a politician for inflation inherited from a predecessor, and that in fact incumbents might receive support for correcting inherited macroeconomic problems, even if those policy remedies were costly in the short run. The argument was neatly tied to everyday political discourse, steering between rational ignorance and rational expectations.
His scholarly and leadership achievements were recognized in a very public way when he was elected as President of the Southern Political Science Association in 1989, a position in which he served with energy and honor. He was active in consulting with the National Science Foundation, and did important interdisciplinary work with Carl Simon (Ford School, University of Michigan) in their 1985 paper "Electoral and Welfare Consequences of Political Manipulation of the Economy," Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
Upon his (third!) retirement, this time from Duke’s Political Science Department, in 2018 Bill was honored with a day long conference reflecting on his work and achievements. The conference was attended by 50 people, many of them students or colleagues from the past, and some of them new friends who had known Bill only for a few years.
Among the many who described Bill’s central influence on their careers was Kenneth Shepsle, long-time professor and ex-chair of the Government Department at Harvard University. Shepsle credits Keech with spurring his interest in political science, and in directing him through the process of applying to graduate school and the job market. Kerry Haynie, now chair of Duke’s Political Science Department, recalls the important guidance and mentorship Bill provided when Kerry was working his PhD at UNC Chapel. Irwin Morris, now executive director of the School of Public and International Affairs at NC State, credits Bill with being a role model in combining collegiality, leadership, and scholarship. Bill was also the adviser for Paul Wellstone, who later served as a US Senator from Minnesota.
All who knew Bill Keech knew him as a distinguished scholar; a dedicated teacher, adviser, and mentor; and a supportive, collaborative colleague. But most of all, we knew Bill as a mensch.
—John Aldrich, Kerry Haynie, Michael Munger, and Georg Vanberg, Duke University
—Henry Chappell, University of South Carolina
—Irwin Morris, NC State University
—Kenneth Shepsle, Harvard University
