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Ferrel Heady died on August 16, 2006, at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Together with Fred Riggs, he is widely known and respected as one of the founders of comparative public administration. In this tribute to our friend and colleague, we touch on the highlights of his distinguished career as a scholar, an academic administrator, and a person who lived up to his own high standards of honesty and integrity in every aspect of his life. We assess his body of work, attempt to summarize its significance, and reproduce comments about him sent to us by his friends and colleagues. This tribute is accompanied by reflections on Ferrel written by Fred Riggs.
Ferrel Heady served his country and profession for more than 65 years in the armed forces, on the political science faculties of several noted universities, as a university president, and as leader of a number of professional associations supporting public administration and public service (Dwight Waldo Award Committee 1994). After earning his PhD in political science from Washington University (St. Louis) in 1940, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, he taught political science at the University of Michigan (1946-66), where he also served as director of the Institute of Public Administration (1960-66). He moved to the University of New Mexico in 1967, serving as president of that institution from 1968 to 1975. From 1975 to 1981, he returned to the political science faculty, where he served as professor emeritus until his death in 2006.
He made significant contributions to the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) as a member of the National Council (1961-67 and 1970-73) and as president (1969-70). He continued to contribute actively as a scholar and leader in the field for the next 35 years, writing an invited article for the Public Administration Review commemorating the 35th anniversary of ASPAs section on International and Comparative Administration (SICA) (Heady 1998) and delivering the Donald Stone Lecture at the ASPA National Conference in 2001 (Heady 2001a). He received ASPA's 1993-94 Dwight Waldo Award for outstanding contributions to the literature and leadership of public administration during his extended career. Most recently, he attended the 2006 ASPA National Conference in Denver, participating in the Ferrel...