Thomas Anton passed away on June 6, 2006, following a battle with cancer. Professor Anton was the A. Alfred Taubman Professor of Public Policy and American Institutions, professor of Political Science, and founding director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University. He served as director of the Taubman Center from 1984 to 2000.
Anton was born September 28, 1934, in Worcester, Massachusetts. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree from Clark University in 1956 and earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1961. He served as a doctoral fellow and lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania from 1959 to 1961. He was an assistant professor of government and public affairs at the University of Illinois from 1961 to 1967. From 1967 to 1983, he was an associate and full professor of political science at the University of Michigan. During his time at Michigan, he was acting director of the Institute of Public Policy Studies from 1973 to 1974 and director of the Intergovernmental Fiscal Analysis Project from 1978 to 1983.
Anton was an internationally renowned political scientist whose path-breaking studies of federalism and public policy won many prestigious awards. He was the author or co-author of 14 books and monographs and over 50 articles in scholarly journals. Among his most important books were The Politics of State Expenditures in Illinois (University of Illinois Press, 1975), Governing Greater Stockholm (University of California Press, 1975), Federal Aid to Detroit (Brookings Institution Press, 1983), and American Federalism and Public Policy: How the System Works (Random House, 1989). He was a past editor of the journal Policy Sciences.
His book, American Federalism and Public Policy, won the 1989 Gladys M. Kammerer Award presented by the American Political Science Association “for the best political science publication in the field of U.S. national policy.” The book presented a “real-politic” approach to American federalism and described how leaders use “benefit coalitions” to build support in fragmented political systems.
Anton was the recipient of many grants and fellowships. Among his grant sponsors were the Ford Foundation, the Bydale Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. Furthermore, he was the recipient of the John F. Kennedy Fellowship from the government of Sweden, the American Philosophical Society Fellowship, the Rackham Research Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship.
In 2000, he was selected to receive the Distinguished Federalism Scholar award by the American Political Science Association. The award honored Anton as a scholar who made significant contributions to the field of federalism. He was an early leader in the compilation of large data systems to track the flow of funds among national, state, and local governments and was one of the earliest scholars to utilize geographic displays of such data to reveal patterns of federal policy.
While at Brown University, Anton was active in a wide range of public and community service. He served as chair of the Board of Commissioners of the Providence Housing Authority and as founder-director of The Providence Plan, a non-profit organization dedicated to community revitalization. In 1992, he received an individual recognition award for his contributions to housing policy. He served the University as dean of the Faculty in 1990–1991. In 1991, he was elected a trustee at Clark University, and in 1995, he became vice-chair of the Clark University Board of Trustees.
Thomas Anton is survived by his wife Barbara of Orleans, Massachusetts, and three children: Lynn Allen and Thomas R. Anton of Michigan and Leslie Anton of Brewster, Massachusetts. He had four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Contributions to honor his memory can be made to the Thomas J. Anton Fund at the Taubman Center for Public Policy, 67 George Street, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912-1977.
