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Robert W. Jackman, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis, died peacefully in San Francisco on October 8, 2009, after a long, courageous struggle with pancreatic cancer.
Bob was born on October 31, 1946, in Oamaru, New Zealand, the first-born child of two school teachers, David and Helen Jackman. His father was a veteran of the North African campaign in WWII, and he and his new wife sought a quiet life teaching in rural Maori communities. Bob's early years were thus spent among the Maori, living in homes without many modern amenities, and experiencing the self-sufficiency and mutual support that characterized life in New Zealand's remote Maori communities. He recalled with fondness that he did not wear shoes until he was eight years old. His parents were passionate about education and music, and those were gifts that he kept throughout his life.
In 1962, Bob's parents moved their family of four children to Auckland, and in 1963 his father died suddenly of a brain tumor. Bob was shattered by his father's death, but he proceeded with his education, graduating from the University of Auckland in 1968 with a BA in history and political studies. As an undergraduate, he was active in the Labour Party and he was a prominent student organizer of symposia, talks, and protests against the Vietnam War. Despite his distaste for American foreign policy, he admired American social science and his ambition was to undertake graduate study in political science in the United States. He was accepted into the political science graduate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a teaching assistantship, and, after working for four months in a bread factory to earn the money for the journey, Bob arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, in August 1968. He was joined there by his sweetheart from New Zealand, Mary Peretz, and they were married that September just as Bob began his graduate studies.
Bob was awarded the Ph.D. in December 1972, shortly after he had joined the faculty of the political science department at Michigan State University. In 1973, he and Mary moved their residence to Ann Arbor, Michigan, so that Mary could accept a position in the sociology department at the University...