Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
Lawrence Longley, Professor of Government, 2002
"There is one final citation I would like to share with you this morning, one that I had hoped to deliver in the presence of the recipient but one that I will now read with a sadness and sense of loss felt by many of us gathered for the 2002 commencement.
Professor Lawrence Longley joined the Department of Government in 1965 and became thereafter its principle teacher of American politics. During his thirty-seven year career at Lawrence, Larry taught courses on subjects including Congress, the Presidency, the Supreme Court, parties and elections, and interest groups. A political activist as well as a teacher, he often shared with his students stories of practical politics, of running campaigns, and of being a member of the Democratic National Committee. He also helped many students get started in politics and public service by arranging internships and overseeing the Washington Semester program.
Larry's success as a teacher was matched by his success as a scholar of political science. As author or co-author of more than one hundred publications, he made significant contributions to our understanding of the Electoral College and of emerging parliamentary systems in Eastern Europe. With his death, the publication record of Lawrence faculty will diminish markedly. Larry often talked about the problems of the Electoral College and tried to convince skeptical colleagues that a presidential candidate really could win the Electoral College and lose the public vote. Although he was in the Netherlands on a Fulbright during the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential contest, we could hear him saying 'I told you so' all the way across the Atlantic.
Larry's work was recognized by the Fulbright Commission in 1994-1995 when it awarded him the John Marshall Chair in American Politics at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences in Hungary, and again in 2000, when he was appointed to the Thomas Jefferson Chair in American Politics at Katholieke Universitat Nijmegen in the Netherlands. He was also extremely active in professional organizations, helping to develop the Legislative Studies Section of the American Political Science Association, and the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists within the International Political Science Association. An avid traveler and efficient organizer, he converted many global conferences, including ones in Budapest, Prague, St. Petersburg, and Cairo.
During the last two years of his life, Larry Longley conducted a valiant struggle against cancer. When, in the summer of 2001, his condition became uncertain, he made the difficult decision to retire. As the disease progressed, he continued to come into the office as much as possible, swimming at the recreation center and eating lunch in the grill with friends from Science and Main Halls. All who saw Larry during this time were deeply impressed by his courage, his strength, and his determination to persevere and also moved by the great support that he received from family members, especially his wife, Judith.
It is with this mixture of sadness and appreciation that we confer on Professor Lawrence Longley this honorary degree posthumously today: Sadness, because the life of teacher and scholar ended too quickly, and appreciation, because so much of that life was devoted to his students, colleagues, and friends at Lawrence University.
Let us pause for a moment of silence in tribute and thanksgiving for the life and legacy of Larry Longley."