Samuel J. Eldersveld

Samuel J. Eldersveld (March 29, 1917 – March 5, 2010) was an American academic, political scientist, and Democratic politician. He served as Mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan from 1957 to 1959.

Eldersveld, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Michigan died at his home on March 5, 2010, at the age of 92. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he spent his formative years in Muskegon, Michigan, where his father was a minister in the Christian Reformed Church.[1][2]

After attending Muskegon Junior College for two years, he earned a B.A. from Calvin College in 1938,[3] and an M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1939. His PhD program in political science at the University of Michigan, begun in 1939, was interrupted when we went off to serve as a lieutenant in the Navy in World War II, during which he served as a communications officer in the Philippines. He completed his PhD in 1946, after which he became an instructor at U-M. He taught there for 54 years. "In 1957, while a professor, he was elected Mayor of Ann Arbor, and served until 1959. He was instrumental in the creation of Ann Arbor's Human Relations Commission committed to eliminating racial discrimination in housing, banking, business, and education".[4]

Career

Eldersveld memorial plaque, St. Andrews Episcopal Church

Eldersveld had a long and distinguished career as a political scientist and professor. He spent most of his career as professor of political science at the University of Michigan, and was professor emeritus at that institution at the time of his death.

Eldersveld was elected mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan as a Democrat in 1957. He ran against the incumbent Republican mayor William E. Brown, Jr. and independent candidate Dominick A. DeVarti, who had lost the 1957 Republican primary to Brown. Mayor William E. Brown, Jr., had served an unprecedented twelve consecutive years in office, and Eldersveld successfully quashed Brown's bid for a seventh term in the mayor's post. Eldersveld served one two-year term as mayor, but decided not to run for reelection in 1959, and returned to his professorship at the University of Michigan, where he served as chair of the Department of Political Science from 1964 to 1970.

In 1965 his book Political Parties: A Behavioral Analysis, won the American Political Science Association's prestigious Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award (sponsored by Princeton University) for the best book on politics and government in 1964.[5] His subsequent research included the comparative study of political party systems in The Netherlands and India, in which he conducted field research in collaboration with researchers from those countries. He also conducted extensive research in the People's Republic of China, leading to the publication of Support for Economic and Political Change in the Chinese Countryside (1996), again co-authored with researchers from the country under study.

The American Political Science Association also recognized Eldersveld's achievements in 1986 by creating the annual Samuel J. Eldersveld Award, meant "to honor a scholar whose lifetime professional work has made an outstanding contribution to the field," and by naming Eldersveld the first year's winner.

Eldersveld died of congestive heart failure in Ann Arbor in March 2010.[6] He was cremated and his ashes interred in the St. Andrews Episcopal Church Memorial Cloister Garden in Ann Arbor.[7]

Honors

Selected book publications

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Kris Bishop, "Samuel Eldersveld, former Ann Arbor mayor, U-M professor, and Press author, dies at 92," University of Michigan Press, Blog. March 11, 2010
  2. ↑ John E. Jackson, M. Kent Jennings, Lawrence B. Mohr and Hanes Walton, Jr., SAMUEL J. ELDERSVELD (In Memoriam), PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 43, No. 4 (October 2010), pp. 800-801.
  3. ↑ Jackson, Jennings, Mohr and Walton, p. 800.
  4. ↑ "Samuel J. Eldersveld," Ann Arbor localwiki .
  5. ↑ Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for Best Book on Government, Politics, or International Affairs, 1947-2002 [retrieved June 28, 2015].
  6. ↑ Samuel Eldersveld, former Ann Arbor mayor and U-M professor, dies at 92, AnnArbor.com, March 9, 2010
  7. ↑ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Samuel_J_Eldersveld_memorial_plaque.JPG
Bibliography

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
William E. Brown, Jr.		 Mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan
1957–1959 		Succeeded by
Cecil O. Creal
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, March 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.