From the Princeton Weekly Bulletin, February 3, 1997
Donald E. Stokes, 69
Donald E. Stokes, 69, died of acute leukemia on January 26. Class of 1943 University Professor of Politics and Public Affairs since 1979, he came to Princeton as the third dean of the Woodrow Wilson School in 1974 and stepped down in 1992 but continued as an active member of the faculty.
During Stokes's tenure at the Woodrow Wilson School, its faculty nearly doubled in size, and its graduate program developed an interdisciplinary core curriculum and expanded public affairs program. The school expanded its undergraduate program by increasing the number of majors, creating interdisciplinary courses, and offering opportunities to study public policy issues raised by advances in science, engineering and the humanities. The Center of International Studies was revitalized, and the Center of Domestic and Comparative Policy Studies was established.
Stokes coauthored three books on American and British voting behavior: The American Voter (1960), Elections and the Political Order (1966) and Political Change in Britain (1969), which won the Woodrow Wilson Prize of the American Political Science Association. He was principal author of The Federal Investment in Knowledge of Social Problems (1978) and was at work on a book on "Pasteur's Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation."
In 1981 and 1991 he served the state as the tie-breaking public member of the N.J. Legislative Apportionment Commission. He cochaired the 1996 Consolidation Study Commission on the merging of Princeton Borough and Princeton Township. He also served as clerk of the school committee of the Princeton Friends School.
A member of the Advisory Committee on Research of the National Science Foundation, Stokes was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Public Administration and American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1996 he received the Elmer B. Staats Award for a distinguished career in public service from the National Association of Schools of Public Administration.
Born in Philadelphia, he was a member of the Class of 1951. He earned his doctorate in political science at Yale and taught from 1958 to 1974 at the University of Michigan, where he served as dean of the graduate school for three years. He also taught as visiting faculty at Nuffield College, Oxford; the University of the West Indies; and the Australian National University.
He is survived by his wife Sybil, daughters Elizabeth and Susan, and three grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 3:00 p.m. on February 2 in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Princeton Friends School, 470 Quaker Road, Princeton, NJ 08540.