In Memorium


Dante Germino

We are sad to report the death of
our former colleague Dante Germino,
who was killed in a tragic accident in
Amsterdam on May 25, 2002. Dante
had a long and distinguished career as
scholar and teacher. After receiving his
Ph.D. from Harvard in 1956, working
with Carl Friedrich, he began to teach
political theory at Wellesley. Although
promoted to associate professor,
with tenure, Dante left Wellesley in
1965 to teach at the University of the
Philippines for the Rockefeller Founda-
tion. In 1968 he accepted a professor-
ship at the University of Virginia,
where he stayed for 29 years, until his
retirement in 1997. After retiring,
Dante moved to Amsterdam, where he
had some of his most productive years,
teaching at the Universities of Amster-
dam and Leiden, and at the University
of Bangkok.

His many books include The Italian
Fascist Party in Power: A Study in
Totalitarian Rule (1959), Beyond Ideol-
ogy: The Revival of Political Theory
(1976), Machiavelli to Marx: Modern
Western Political Thought (1979), Polit-
ical Philosophy and the Open Society
(1982), The Inaugural Addresses of
American Presidents (1984), and
Antonio Gramsci: Architect of a New
Politics (1990). This is a remarkable
list. Dante’s erudition spanned the en-
tire history of Western political theory,
from ancient times to the present day,
and encompassed Italian politics and
American political rhetoric. Throughout
his career, Dante received many awards,
including a Z Society’s Medallion for
Distinguished Teaching at Virginia and
a Guggenheim fellowship. In 1974, he
chaired the political theory section for
the American Political Science Associa-
tion meeting.

A list of dates and accomplishments
conveys little of Dante’s essence. He
had passionate convictions and was not
shy about expressing them. This could
make him a challenging colleague, but
he was also a fiercely loyal friend. As a
political theorist, Dante described him-
self as “interested in the recovery of po-
litical philosophy in its pre-modern
range and depth.” He resisted main-
stream opinions, turned his back on the
scientific study of politics, and main-
tained a lifelong interest in the political
philosophy of Eric Voegelin, to the
explication and extension of which he

devoted many of his works. Dante re-
cently completed editing and writing a
new introduction for Volume 16 of
Voegelin’s Collected Works, Plato and
Aristotle (2000). He idolized the appar-
ently disparate figures of Plato and
Machiavelli, finding in the former sym-
bolic expression of the ambiguities in-
herent in man’s relationship to reality
which he believed to lie at the heart of
true political theory. Dante also cared
deeply about social justice. At usually
placid U.Va. he was a leader in univer-
sity protests against the Vietnam war,
and a lifelong combatant in the cause of
civil rights, and later, gay rights. During
the last few years, substantial portions
of his teaching and research were
addressed to the phenomenon of right-
wing violence. 

Dante taught political theory on
three continents. His courses in the
Philippines were some of his finest
hours. He introduced Philippine stu-
dents to Friedrich’s constitutionalism
and separation of powers. But more
than that, by going back to Plato,
Aristotle, Adams, and Jefferson, he
helped them understand what sets the
American political system apart. Many
of the students he inspired went into
journalism and government; an impres-
sive group taught political science at
the University of the Philippines and
other universities in the Philippines and
abroad. The course he cotaught with
O. D. Corpuz, then Chairman of the
Government Department at the Univer-
sity of the Philippines, was at that time
the largest class in the University’s
history. Some 1,000 students enrolled
in the course, which was held in the
field house, otherwise used only for
such events as graduation.

One of Dante’s most enduring lega-
cies at U.Va. is the program in Political
and Social Thought, an interdisciplinary
undergraduate major, of which he was
founding director. He not only raised
the money but recruited faculty from
Philosophy, Religious Studies, History,
Government and Foreign Affairs, and
other departments to teach selected
courses. Single-handedly he built a pro-
gram that is thriving a quarter century
later. But his concern for his students
was seen most clearly in his highly
personal, emotional style of teaching.

In “The Meaning of Ethical Neutral-
ity,” Max Weber classically expresses
the position that the teacher has an obli-
gation not to use the lecture platform as

a pulpit. This view Dante rejected. In
teaching political theory, he used his
subject matter as a vehicle to argue for
his central values of freedom, tolerance,
and the open society. He believed it was
part of a teacher’s role to challenge his
students, to push them to see through
society’s dominant values. Not to pres-
ent provocative arguments was to allow
the status quo to prevail by default. Pas-
sionate advocacy made Dante a contro-
versial teacher. While some students
rejected his message and unusual style,
others flocked to it. Throughout his ca-
reer, he profoundly affected generations
of students.

George Klosko
Kenneth W. Thompson

University of Virginia

Joseph Pois
Joseph Pois, professor, lawyer, consult-

ant and civil servant, died of pneumonia
on July 12, 2001, at the age of 95.

The youngest of eight children of
Turkish immigrants Adolph and Augusta
Pois, Joe was born on December 25,
1905, in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen.
Joe never lost his Bronx accent nor his
sensitivity toward human suffering, at-
tachment to social justice or quick wry
New York wit. Raised as much by sib-
lings as by his parents, Joe’s lifelong
zeal for learning was encouraged by a
school-teacher sister and financed by a
successful entrepreneur brother. 

Joe’s academic career began with a
bachelor’s degree and a Phi Beta Kappa
key from the University of Wisconsin in
1926. In the course of the next three
years he earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in
political science from the University of
Chicago where he studied under Leonard
White and Robert Merriam. Joe’s princi-
pal and undying devotion was to the
law. He earned a J.D. in 1934 from the
Chicago/Kent School of Law and main-
tained his membership on the bar until
his death…dutifully pursuing the requi-
site annual continuing education.

While in law school Joe began his
career as a consultant, first with
Chicago’s J. L. Jacobs & Co. and then
the Public Administration Service, un-
der the direction of Donald C. Stone.
In 1938 Stone brought Joe into the
Roosevelt Administration. His first
assignment was heading up the admin-
istrative studies section of the U.S.

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IN MEMORIAM



Bureau of Old Age and Survivors
Insurance, now the Social Security
Administration. Joe led the effort to
automate the bureau’s record-keeping
system. From 1939 to 1942 he served
with Stone in the U.S. Bureau of the
Budget, where he headed up the sec-
tion responsible for the federal reorgan-
ization efforts. One of the individuals
impressed with Joe’s work was the
U.S. Coast Guard Commandant, Admi-
ral Russell Wasche, who recruited him
in 1942 to serve as his top assistant.
Joe left the service on Wasche’s death
in 1946 with rank of Captain. 

Returning to Chicago, Joe resumed
his consulting briefly with J. L. Jacobs
until recruited in 1947 by the president
of Signode Corporation, a steel strapping
manufacturer, where he served ultimately
as vice president of finance and board
director until 1961. At Signode Joe took
a leave of absence when recruited by
Governor Adlai Stevenson to serve as
his Director of Finance from 1951 to
1953. While in Chicago he served in a
number of civic roles, most notably as
member and president of the Chicago
School Board, Immigration Service
League and Chicago Metropolitan
Housing and Planning Council.

Joe left Chicago, again at the behest
of old friend Don Stone, to help the
latter establish the Graduate School of
Public and International Affairs at the
University of Pittsburgh. Joe served as
chair of the public administration de-
partment from 1961 to 1971 and associ-
ate dean from 1973 to 1975. He was
named professor emeritus in 1976 and
continued to teach into his eighties.

In Pittsburgh, Joe continued to devote
a large share of energies to public serv-
ice as volunteer with a variety of local
organizations, including board member-
ships on the Pittsburgh School Board,
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, World
Federalist Association and the Zionist
Organization of America. He also served
as consultant to the U.S. Departments of
State and Defense, U.S. Senate, USAID,
and USGAO.

Joe’s academic interests were in pub-
lic law, finance and accountability. His
Watchdog on the Potomac is a definitive
study of the U.S. General Accounting
Office. He brought to the classroom his
rich experience as well as a legendary
intellectual rigor. His courses were con-
sidered among the toughest yet most re-
warding in the school, and his lectures
were a particular treat—for their content
as well as their humor and urbane
delivery.

He was fond of telling about a
Ph.D. student of his who, facing a “do
or die” deadline on his dissertation and

the circumstance of Joe’s being ship-
bound on a round-the-world voyage,
saw to it that Joe was greeted at each
port-of-call with serial chapters. The
dissertation was completed in time and
the grateful student joined a legion of
others who continue to think of him as
providing their most significant aca-
demic experience in their graduate
programs. 

Joe’s wife Rose passed away in
1981. He is survived by his two sons,
Robert Pois, a professor of history at
the University of Colorado, and Marc
Pois of Pittsburgh, as well as many
nieces, nephews and grandchildren.
Joe also leaves his close friend and
companion, Eleanor Schoenberg of
Pittsburgh, who as executrix of his
estate, arranged for his two-thousand-
volume library to be sent to the new
American University of Bulgaria. The
gift was inspired by Joe’s Jewish her-
itage and interest in Judaica and the
pride he had in Bulgaria’s efforts dur-
ing the holocaust of saving its Jewish
citizens from Nazi death camps.
Equally apposite, Joe’s collection of the
American Political Science Review, dat-
ing from 1927, was offered as a gift to
any institution interested in having
them. The two that responded were
associated with Ukraine, his mother’s
birthplace, and Turkey, his father’s. The
collection now resides with Ukraine.

Ed Kiely

Frank L. Wilson
On November 2, 2001, Frank L.

(“Lee”) Wilson lost his long and valiant
battle with heart disease. The hoped-for
new lease on life from a heart trans-
plant was not to be. His departure is
not only a great loss to the Department
of Political Science, but also to the
School of Liberal Arts, the university,
and, in a very real way, to the academic
community. Lee was a dedicated teacher,
an outstanding scholar, a first-rate ad-
ministrator, and the kind of model citi-
zen without which no good university
can ultimately function. For me person-
ally, his passing means not only the loss
of a colleague and coauthor whom I
greatly respected and admired, but,
above all, the loss of a close friend.

Lee completed his Ph.D. degree at
UCLA in 1969. He was appointed
lecturer at UCLA and visiting assistant
professor at California State College,
Long Beach, in 1969–70. Our paths first
crossed at Iowa State University, where
Lee accepted an appointment as assis-
tant professor in 1970. A year later,

both of us joined the faculty at Purdue
University. In 1983 Lee was promoted
to full professor and from 1988 to 2000
he served as department head. Other ac-
ademic appointments included a visiting
associate professorship and two visiting
professorships at UCLA (summers 1981,
1984, 1986), Brigham Young University
(winter–spring 1986), and Universite
Robert Schuman, Strasbourg (1996).
During the spring of 1993, he was a
visiting scholar at the Center for
European Studies, Harvard University.

Lee Wilson’s contributions to scholar-
ship were recognized both within and
outside Purdue University. He was the
recipient of a number of intramural
grants, including five research and inter-
national travel grants, a fellowship from
the Center for Humanistic Studies, and a
Purdue University Global Studies Grant.
Extramural grants included a Fulbright-
Hays Teaching Fellowship in France, an
American Philosophical Society Fellow-
ship, and a Spencer Foundation Grant.
While serving as department head, Lee
also received a three-year award for staff
expansion from the Japan Foundation In-
stitutional Support Program and a cur-
riculum development grant from the Eu-
ropean Studies Association.

Although Lee’s primary scholarly in-
terest was French politics, the range of
his scholarship also included European
and general comparative politics. He was
equally at home in writing for under-
graduates, graduate students, and faculty
colleagues. Active in the profession, he
served in a number of capacities in
APSA, the Educational Testing Service,
and the College Board Test Development
and Curriculum Committee for
Advanced Placement in Government and
Politics. His record includes numerous
teaching publications and many years of
service as a faculty fellow, a schoolwide
excellence in teaching award, and the
Frederick L. Hovde Award as Outstand-
ing Faculty Fellow. However, Lee
Wilson was also a very productive
scholar: the author, coauthor, or editor of
a dozen books, 18 book chapters, and
25 articles in some of the best journals
of our discipline. Even when he was de-
partment head and already seriously ill,
Lee never ceased to be a scholar. An ar-
ticle on “Failure to Reform: The French
Communist Party” was scheduled to be
published in November 2001 in German
Policy Studies, and a few days after his
death a copy of the second edition of
his book Concepts and Issues in Com-
parative Politics arrived in the depart-
mental mail. Clearly, Lee’s contribution
to scholarship, teaching and service in
the academic community was not only
outstanding in terms of its quantity, but

596 PS September 2002



also because of its multifaceted nature
and unusual balance. His commitment to
increasing the diversity of the students,
faculty, and administrators at Purdue
University was second to none. It was
under his leadership that our department
won the President’s Affirmative Action
Award in 1991.

Last, but not least, Lee Wilson was
an admirable human being—humane,
tolerant, remarkably patient even at
times of great stress, a person of
integrity. Ever intellectually curious, he
subjected himself to a rare degree of

discipline and organization. Neverthe-
less, he also had a keen appreciation of
the finer things in life. He loved theater,
music, the arts, and good food. If he
was very demanding and had extremely
high standards, he never subjected
anyone to standards he himself was not
prepared to meet or exceed. When I
think of Lee, I think of someone who
was highly dedicated to his profession,
but at the same time unselfish and emi-
nently fair in dealing with students and
his colleagues. He was the kind of per-
son and friend to whom I would have

entrusted my family and earthly belong-
ings without hesitation. In 1860 Ralph
Waldo Emerson wrote: “In failing cir-
cumstances no man can be relied on to
keep his integrity.” Supported by a
loving wife and family, and sustained
by his deep personal faith, Lee Wilson
proved Emerson wrong. His life and his
determined struggle to overcome the
odds he faced serve as a lasting inspira-
tion to all who knew him.

Rolf H.W. Theen
Purdue University

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