By selecting Theodore J. Lowi to serve as its President, the American Political Science Association has recognized his extraordinary scholarly and professional contributions. Indeed, Lowi's work has played a singularly important role in the intellectual development of the profession during the past two decades. He was recognized in an American Political Science Association survey as the most significant political scientist of the 1970s, and continues in every study to be the single most frequently cited member of the profession. At the same time, as a truly gifted teacher, Lowi has inspired large numbers of graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom have followed in his professional footsteps.

Lowi was born in Gadsden, Alabama in 1931. Much of his family lived in Marks, Mississippi (a city named for Lowi's great-uncle), and Lowi may be said to have considered—but rejected—Marksism in his youth. He chose, instead, to enter Michigan State University on a music scholarship. At Michigan State, Lowi played the oboe in both the marching band and orchestra before receiving his B.A.