 | James W. Fesler |
Fesler, whose distinguished public service career dated to the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was 94.
A native of Duluth, Minnesota, Fesler graduated from the University of Minnesota and received his doctorate from Harvard University. He was, for 16 years, a member of the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and held visiting professorships at the University of Minnesota and University of California at Berkeley. In 1951 he joined the Yale faculty as the Cowles Professor and chair of the Department of Political Science. He retired in 1979 and remained active professionally for another dozen years.
His public service career began with Roosevelt's National Resources Planning Board and the President's Committee on Administrative Management, and included five years with the War Production Board, first as assistant to the executive secretary and later as the board's official historian. He was the editor of "Industrial Mobilization for War," which was published in 1947. After World War II, he was a consultant to the United Nations and various federal agencies. In Connecticut he served in the administrations of Governor Ella Grasso and New Haven Mayor Richard C. Lee.
Much of Fesler's scholarly work focused on decentralization and the clash of area and function as organizing principles. His 1947 public lectures at the University of Alabama, published as "Area and Administration," became a classic in the field. Other books by Fesler included "The Independence of State Regulatory Agencies" and, with Donald F. Kettl, "The Politics of the Administrative Process." He was also editor and co-author of "The 50 States and Their Local Governments and American Public Administration: Patterns of The Past."
In 1971, the late Aaron Wildavsky, professor of political science at the University of California at Berkeley and a president of the American Political Science Association, wrote of Fesler, with whom he had studied public administration: "He possessed an unerring sense of the critical problem. Whatever insight, clarity of mind, and a sense of proportion could do for his students, he did."
In 1984, "The Costs of Federalism," edited by Wildavsky and Robert Golembiewski, was published in Fesler's honor. In 1986 he received the Dwight Waldo Award of the American Society for Public Administration "for distinguished contribution to the professional literature of public administration," and in 1988, he was presented the John Gaus Award of the American Political Science Association for a lifetime of exemplary scholarship.
Fesler was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Public Administration. He served as vice president of the American Political Science Association, editor-in-chief of the Public Administration Review, and associate editor of the American Political Science Review.
Fesler was predeceased by his wife, Frances Martin Fesler. He is survived by a daughter, Janet M. Fesler, of Washington, D.C.; a son, James M. Fesler, daughter-in-law Jacqueline Fesler, and a granddaughter, Lillian Fesler, all of Lexington, Massachusetts; and a step-grandson, Sacha Twarog, of New York City. Contributions in his memory can be made to The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, 70 Audubon St., New Haven, CT 06510.
T H I S
In Memoriam: James Fesler
Public administration scholar served
federal, state and local governments
James W. Fesler, the Alfred Cowles Professor of Government Emeritus, died on April 26 in Branford, Connecticut.
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