Jonathan Page West, professor of political science at the University of Miami and a leading public administration and policy scholar and practitioner, passed away in Coral Gables, Florida on January 2, 2022. A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, West was born on March 9, 1941, and his passion for public policy and public administration began at an early age. He was part of a young and idealistic generation of Americans inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural call to “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” He answered that call in 1962 when he served as a Summer Staff Associate for Senator Frank E. Moss in Washington, D.C. West was an active student leader, serving as Student Body President at the University of Utah, where he graduated in 1965 with a B.S. in Political Science. He went on to pursue his graduate studies at Northwestern University, earning an MA (1966) and a PhD (1969) in Political Science.
Continuing to do for his country, West honorably served in the United States Armed Forces, obtaining the rank of Captain in the United States Army and serving as a Management Analyst at the United States Department of the Army’s Office of the Surgeon General (1969-1971).
Yet West’s true call to serve came in the form of his passion for education, a calling that would define the rest of his life. His first academic positions were at the University of Houston, where he served as Assistant Director at the Institute for Urban Studies (1971-1975). Concurrently, West was Assistant to the President for the Southwest Center for Urban Research (1971-1975). From 1974 to 1975, he was Director of the Graduate Urban Studies Program in the College of Social Sciences.
Joining the faculty of the University of Arizona (1975-1980), West served in different capacities at its Public Administration Department, including as a member and chair of several committees. His quality as an educator did not go unnoticed by his students, earning him the University of Arizona’s Outstanding Teacher in Public Administration Award twice (1976-1977 and 1979-1980).
In January 1981, West joined the University of Miami’s faculty. During his 41 years at UM, he served as Political Science professor and Department Chair and was Director of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs, his pride and joy. Aside from his duties in the Political Science Department, West served as professor at the Departments of Management (1981-2021), Health Sector Management and Policy (2015-2021), and International Studies (2010-2015). West was known for his administrative capabilities and was sought-after in times of crisis. From 2005 until 2006, he was selected to serve as Interim Chair of UM’s International Studies Department.
Throughout his long and fruitful academic career, West served on over 30 doctoral and masters committees and numerous masters and PhD examination committees. While serving as Director of the MPA program at UM, West supervised all graduate interns and served on several senior honors thesis committees.
A leader in the academic community, West was an active member of the American Political Science Association (APSA), the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), the Western Political Science Association (WPSA), the Southern Political Science Association (SPSA), and the Florida Political Science Association (FPSA).
A prolific author, West completed nine books, three research monographs, and scores of journal articles and many other publications. Over the years, West collaborated extensively with his colleagues Evan M. Berman, and James S. Bowman. Together with Berman and Bowman, West co-wrote and co-edited several books and articles, contributing significantly to the study of public administration and public policy.
West also held numerous editorial positions, serving as Managing Editor of Public Integrity (1998-2014), Symposium editor of the 30-Year Anniversary of ROPPA (2010) and “Civil Service Reform in the State of Georgia” (2002), and Symposium co-editor of “State Civil Service Reform” (2006 and 2008). In addition, West was a member of the editorial boards of the Review of Public Personnel Administration, Public Personnel Management, Global Virtue Ethics Review, the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, Spectrum: The Journal of State Government, the Borderlands Review and Newsletter, the Florida Political Chronicle, and Texas Public Policy Notes.
Over the years, West earned several awards and recognitions, including membership in UM’s Omicron Delta Kappa and Iron Arrow Society and receiving the lifetime achievement award from the American Society for Public Administration’s Section on Ethics, the South Florida Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration’s (ASPA)’s Outstanding Leadership Award (2011 and 2012), ASPA’s Paul Van Riper Award for Excellence and Service (2014), Sage Publications’ Cornerstone Author Award (2015), the Florida Political Science Association’s Manning J. Dauer Award (2016), and the Luis Glaser Mentorship Award (2021).
Beloved by his students and respected by his colleagues, West was a mild-mannered gentleman, serene, reassuring, motivational, and supportive. He saw potential in his students and made them aware of it. His calm demeanor made him the voice of reason during the turbulence of department and university politics. His MPA alums are one of his greatest and most lasting legacies. Over the years, UM MPA degree recipients have gone on to serve as members of Congress, city managers, chiefs of police, deputy mayors, and administrators in a variety of fields.
A proud and loving husband, father, and grandfather, West leaves behind his wife Martha, son Jonathan Lowell, and several grandchildren. Another son, Brigham Niles, predeceased him. In his memory, the University of Miami has set up the Jonathan P. West Graduate Scholarship and Educational Support Endowment. West’s name will forever be synonymous with academic integrity, educational excellence, and service to his community. He asked what he could do for his country and answered with a life well-lived defined by love, kindness, inquisitiveness, and a desire to give back.
APSA’s Research Department: Datasets
The Research Department at APSA gathers, analyzes, and archives information to create a knowledge base on and identify trends in the political science discipline and the profession. Using administrative data and through surveys, we create datasets on enrollments, curriculums, faculty, hiring trends, graduate placements, incoming graduate classes, job advertisements, and membership demographics over time. Public, anonymized versions of these datasets, shown as icons below, are available for our members to download. Please see https://bit.ly/3MG5IUN for more information on how to access these datasets. Please note that, by downloading our datasets, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use, available here: https://bit.ly/3ML03fX. For any inquiries or questions, contact us at [email protected].
To see the available datasets, you can go to Data on the Profession and select “Tools & Datasets” in our website, which provides links to all the available datasets in chronological order. To download the datasets, you will need to use your account with APSA, and agree to our Terms and Conditions for using our data. Once you have logged in, your account will allow you to download the data, as well as the pertaining codebook and questionnaire.
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