Emeritus faculty member helps department he served

By Steven Goldsmith
News & Information

Donald Matthews, professor emeritus of political science, has donated $800,000 to his department in what is believed to be the largest faculty gift ever made within the College of Arts and Sciences.

Donald Matthews

The gift will fund teaching and research in American government, a field in which Matthews is internationally renown.

Matthews, who retired in 1996, said he wanted to enhance the political science department in which he taught for two decades and that he helped build during his eight years as chairman.

“I would very much like to help the political science department get even better than it already is,” Matthews said. “So when I discovered that, thanks to the stock market, I had it in my power to offer some support, I just thought that this was a most worthy and exciting goal.”

The Donald R. Matthews Endowment for Excellence in Political Science will go toward retaining and recruiting top talent through a professorship and graduate fellowships .

Nationwide competition for outstanding graduate students, Matthews said, has become “a bit like with football players.” The political science department has not been able to offer these candidates the kind of financial support available at some institutions.

But equally significant, colleagues say, is the morale boost that comes from a gift made by someone with such a longstanding, insider’s connection to the department.

“He’s one of our own,” said David Olson, a longtime political science colleague. “He’s looked at us and he’s said that we’re meritorious in terms of making an investment in the future.”

“He believes in public higher education,” added Michael Podlin, director of development for social sciences, “and he knows first-hand how limited the resources are.”

Matthews joined the political science department in 1976 as chairman, and is credited with retaining several of the key young faculty as well as recruiting new talent.

“Professor Matthews was a major force in shaping the department into the quality program that it is today,” said Stephen Majeski, the current chairman.

One thing Matthews had never anticipated was to be in the position to be a philanthropist. His career was devoted to groundbreaking scholarship, beginning with the 1960 book U.S. Senators and Their World that ushered in a behavioral revolution in political science by explaining the norms by which politicians actually operated. It has been a core part of political science courses for four decades.

“In the field of American politics in the last half of the 20th century,” Olson said, “Don Matthews ranks in the very top.”