Hugh Douglas Price was born in Bradenton, Florida, on 23 September 1928 and grew up in small towns in Florida and Indiana. He apparently had a normal middle-American adolescence and was a high school athlete as well as a popular student and outstanding scholar. After high school graduation in 1946, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, serving in Korea and Japan. He was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant in 1949 and enrolled in the University of Florida on the GI Bill. Price graduated in three years, first in his class. He continued his studies in political science at Florida under Manning Dauer for an additional year, writing a master's thesis on black voting and registration in Florida, which was subsequently published as a book by New York University Press.

Price then came to Harvard where he studied principally under V.O. Key, Jr. His Ph.D. dissertation used Senate voting patterns 1949-1956 to demonstrate the utility of scales for political analysis. It was awarded the Toppan Prize for dissertations of exceptional merit.

Price taught briefly at the University of Florida, and then at Columbia and Syracuse Universities before returning to the Department of Government at Harvard as a tenured professor in 1966. He served on this faculty for 30 years until his untimely death on 8 December 1996 from head injuries suffered in a freak accident at his Weston home. At 68, he was the George D. Markham Professor of Government.

Douglas Price was on the cutting edge of professional thinking in his field. His interest in statistical research methods, following the lead of his mentor, V.O. Key, was well in advance of their penetration of the political science discipline, as was his appreciation of the value of organized statistics for the study of voting behavior and election outcomes. He was also an early enthusiast for public choice theory, although his resistance to single-factor casual interpretations ultimately left him critical of much applied research in a public choice framework.

Above all he was, arguably, the best informed among our colleagues on the history of the development of American political institutions. Few scholars have combined so much quantitative skill and so much historical knowledge -- he read just about everything.

Price's interest centered on Congress. He published very little; his master's thesis was his only book. But a number of his articles exercised a significant influence on his students and his contemporaries in congressional studies, among them articles on the changing patterns of congressional careers considered in terms of institutional development of the House and Senate. To preserve the record of this influence, Professor Nelson Polsby of the University of California - Berkeley, is publishing a compilation of these articles so that, in Polsby's words, "future readers can admire the sparkle of one of our most creative minds and appreciate his contributions to our common fund of knowledge."

That Price's research did not flower more fully is our loss, because he had uncovered a number of ideas that, with his piercing intelligence, empirical shrewdness, and breadth of knowledge, could have turned into important studies. For example, he had in his head an analysis of the evolution of Congress in response to ambient changes in the technology and organization of communications and information media -- a treatment of Congress analogous to Alfred D. Chandler's treatment of factors behind the rise of the large business enterprise.

While not a charismatic teacher, Price had an important influence on a number of high-quality students. Rather than criticize a student's work he would suggest additional reading that they might undertake. The properly alert student, pondering the suggested book or article, would realize therefrom, the flawed reasoning or missed opportunity in his or her own work.

Price was by nature shy and adverse to confrontation, growing more introverted over the years. He was also deeply principled. His principles demanded that the researcher give full, fair, and open-minded treatment to empirical data, and he mistrusted efforts to impose strong hypotheses in settings that call out for multicausal interpretations. This combination of reticence with deep principle posed a severe dilemma for Price that invited an unfortunate resolution, namely inaction and retreat. The resulting attenuation of relations with his departmental and professional colleagues caused him a good deal of unhappiness and was a loss for all parties.

Price's contributions to Harvard and the profession went beyond his own research and his formal teaching. The entire faculty is indebted to him for his doing duty on the Faculty Council for three years, on the Administrative Board for Harvard and Radcliffe colleges for four years, on the Student-Faculty Judicial Board, and for four years as the Faculty's parliamentarian; and the political science profession is obliged for his service on the editorial board of the American Political Science Review and on the political science panel of the National Science Foundation.

Douglas Price was personally generous and undemanding. His friends warmly remember the unmarked envelopes he would regularly send them filled with clippings, reprints, and other materials relevant to their interests. He would make light of personal problems lest they should place a burden of sympathy on others.

He leaves his wife, Judith Emerson Price; two sons, Edward D. And Robert J.; and two stepsons, Daniel and Deryl Emerson. His marriage to Eileen McDonagh ended in divorce.

Respectfully submitted,

Richard E. Caves

Samuel P. Huntington

Richard E. Neustadt

Arthur Maass, Chairman

 

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Copyright 1998 President and Fellows of Harvard College