Members of the British Politics Group were saddened to learn of the loss of two BPG stalwarts who were friends to many of us. Former British Politics Group Executive Director (from 1976 to 1994) and BPG co-founder Jorgen Rasmussen passed away in 2024. He was instrumental in launching the BPG in its early years, serving as its first Executive Director for two decades. Jorgen welcomed many of us into the BPG and made us feel at home; he was the Executive Director when I first started attending BPG panels at APSA and kindly made me, as a graduate student, feel welcome in the group, as I know he did with many others. In addition, we lost a friend and long-time active BPG member, Jerold Waltman of Baylor University. Jerry was a prolific scholar – the author of nine books along with edited volumes, a textbook and numerous academic articles – and an active, collegial member of the BPG. Jerry was a regular at our conferences and events and a warm, welcoming friend to many of us. Both Jorgen and Jerry are deeply missed. In tribute, I want to share obituaries of Jorgen and Jerry and to include some personal thoughts from members of the BPG.

– Janet Laible, Executive Director of the British Politics Group

 

Jorgen Rasmussen

May 23, 1935 – January 10, 2024

ISU Memorial Resolution:

Jorgen Rasmussen was a teacher, scholar, and administrator in the Department of Political Science for over three decades. He was a world-renowned authority on comparative politics generally and British politics in particular. He was one of the founders and long-time executive secretary of the British Politics Group, a leading research organization under the auspices of the American Political Science Association. Jorgen published extensively on British politics and regularly taught courses on that topic and related ones. Indeed, he was the co-author of several editions of a leading text on comparative politics that was widely used. Significantly, too, and as an indicator of his scholarly reputation, Jorgen was named a Distinguished Professor in 1989, the first such appointment for a faculty member in the history of the Department of Political Science. Jorgen also served as chair of the political science department and played an important role in establishing the local chapter of OLLI [Osher Lifelong Learning Institute]. Finally, in retirement, Jorgen offered a broad array of courses at the local chapter of OLLI and, shortly before his passing, was recognized by that organization for his long service and commitment to ISU retirees. He was, according to one colleague, “a superlative teacher and one of the top research scholars on Europe.” Besides political science and teaching, Jorgen also had a number of other interests. He was an avid reader of both nonfiction and fiction (especially science fiction). At his death, his library was quite extensive in size and topics numbering over 10,000 books on a multitude of subjects. He was a huge music enthusiast, particularly favoring big band and jazz (with a preference for Blue Note Records musicians). As a young adult, he even won a radio contest for a special edition of Glenn Miller records. He was a generous and ardent supporter of all the arts and especially of local artists. He also enjoyed entertaining himself making his own works, just for fun. When it came to sports, he was a passionate baseball fan, but hockey was also a large interest. For many years, he served as the faculty advisor for the ISU hockey team. He had a soft spot for pets everywhere in need of a helping hand and himself had several beloved cats over the years. He was an advocated for animals, preservation of the environment, and voting rights and was generous toward these causes. His final resting place is the Wildflower Scattering Garden at Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines.

– Alex Tuckness, Professor and Chair, Political Science, Iowa State University. ISU Alumni Newsletter 2024 [lightly edited by Donley Studlar]

As Richard Rose notes, Jorgen Rasmussen was instrumental to the success of the BPG, serving as its first Executive Secretary for two decades. Originally established in 1975 primarily to encourage the study of British Politics in the US, it grew to encompass many scholars in the UK as well, both prominent and aspirant ones. Jorgen presided over this accomplished and witty group in an encouraging and benign manner. Anthony King once leaned over to me at an Executive Committee meeting and said that the BPG was the best academic organization in which he was a member. Jorgen had a distinguished research career as a scholar of British politics, especially elections, parties, and Parliament. He published on these topics in the leading US and UK journals of his time.  He also served in various capacities in other professional organizations, including the editorial board of the APSR and the Executive Council of the MPSA. His varied interests were reflected in a featured painting in his house of the baseball ‘shot heard round the world’ as well as a published novel from his jazz interests called Swingtime. It was an unexpected honor for me to be asked to succeed him as BPG Executive Secretary in 1994.

– Donley T. Studlar, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Political Science, West Virginia University

When I learned that Jorgen Rasmussen had died, it brought back memories from fifty years ago of the founding of the British Politics Group by Stephen Blank, then executive director of the Council of European Studies and myself. Stephen took responsibility for finding a voluntary executive director while I was responsible for getting the BPG recognised by the American Political Science Association. The person he found was Jorgen. I had never met him but had read his pioneering study of the Liberal Party in retrenchment and the first stage of revival. Jorgen brought the idea that Stephen and I had discussed to life as the very committed and very efficient director of the BPG for many years. All this was done along with Jorgen’s many other contributions to his university, his students and to the wider community.  While Jorgen has now passed on, the British Politics Group lives as his monument.

– Professor Richard Rose FBA, University of Strathclyde, Visiting Fellow European University Institute Florence, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin

 

Jerold Waltman

July 26, 1945 – January 23, 2025

Jerold Lloyd Waltman, professor emeritus of the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) and Baylor University, passed away in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on January 23, 2025, at the age of 79. During his time at Baylor, Jerry served as the R.W. Morrison Professor of Political Science, a Resident Fellow of the Baylor Institute for Studies in Religion, and Editor of the Journal of Church and State. Jerry’s areas of specialization were comparative constitutional law, British politics, law and religion, and minimum wage policy. Jerry taught at Kankakee Community College 1969-1972, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis 1975-1976, Louisiana College 1976-1978, University of Southern Mississippi 1978-2003, and Baylor University 2003 until his retirement in 2020.

As a much-appreciated teacher and mentor, Jerry offered guidance and encouragement to many undergraduate and graduate students at USM and Baylor. He loved teaching and excelled at it, as evidenced by his receiving from Baylor in 2010 the Robert L. Reid Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Humanities. He is the sole author of nine books as well as authoring numerous edited works, a textbook and a large number of academic articles. His book examining the Supreme Court case of City of Boerne v. Flores was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2014. He was a guest lecturer at James Madison University and Colgate University, a participant in a National Endowment seminar at Notre Dame University, and an editorial board member at Politics and Religion Journal.

Friends and family will remember Jerry as someone with a love of learning and a deep attachment to the mountains of Colorado, the English countryside, and the streets of London. His heart yearned for justice for all people. His minimum wage work sought to expound the sound economic and political rationale for paying a living wage to workers.

– Obituary from the Hulett Winstead Funeral Home. The full obituary is available here:

https://www.hulettwinsteadfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Jerold-Lloyd-Waltman?obId=34759175

Jerry and I went to graduate school in Political Science at Indiana University in the 1970s. A decade later we edited two books together on British politics, one on institutions, one on policy. Jerry pursued eclectic lines of research, mainly through the publication of 13 books, including one of the first Political Science studies of policy copying (1980), US and comparative judicial research, especially on church-state issues, and various topics in Political Economy, notably well recognized work on income tax and comparative minimum wage laws. He was a longtime active participant in the British Politics Group.

– Donley T Studlar, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Political Science, West Virginia University