In Memoriam
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295600900429 |
| Published date | 01 December 1956 |
| Date | 01 December 1956 |
| Author | James T. Watkins |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
1025
IN
MEMORIAM
Ten
years
ago
this
past
fall
Arnaud
B.
Leavelle
was
called
to
Stanford
University
to
be
assistant
professor
of
political
science.
He
was
then
thirty-two.
Last
October
late
on
the
afternoon
of
the
22nd
he
answered
another
call;
this
time
it
was
one
that
took
him
from
the
unfinished
busi-
ness
of
a
happy
and
successful
career
into
that
larger
service
which
is
the
promise
of
the
Christian
faith.
Death
came
suddenly
with
a
massive
coronary
thrombosis
while
he
was
exercising
his
polio-crippled
limbs
in
the
swimming
pool
of
his
campus
home.
For
the
decade
of
his
sojourn
at
Stanford
his
colleagues,
the
scores
of
graduate
students
who
passed
through
his
hands
and
that
much
larger
number
of
undergraduates
who
crowded
his
classes
in
political
theory
are
bound
to
return
thanks.
These
are
the
grateful
beneficiaries
of
his
brilliant
mind,
the
high
standards
he
demanded
of
us
all,
his
patient
counsel
and
unfailing
encouragement.
But,
more
than
that,
we
were
witnesses
to
an
heroic
triumph
daily
renewed
as
his
indomitable
spirit
wrestled
with
the
angel
of
infirmity.
Yet,
though
he
got
through
each
day
only
with
great
effort,
no
word
of
complaint
and
no
hint
of
his
abiding
fear
that
his
almost
useless
legs
might
sometime
fail
were
ever
given
to
others.
Only
forty-two
at
the
time
of
his
death,
Professor
Leavelle’s
earthly
life
was
arrested
in
mid-career.
Born
a
native
of
California,
he
had
spent
part
of
his
youth
in
China.
There
he
contracted
the
polio
that
incapaci-
tated
him
for
long
and
ravaged
him
to
the
end.
A
powerful
will,
rigorous
self-discipline
and
the
sustaining
love
of
family
and
friends
helped
him
to
achieve
in
spite
of
his
handicap
both
professional
success
and
a
large
meas-
ure
of
happiness.
Professor
Leavelle
prepared
at
the
University
of
California,
Los
Angeles,
where
he
received
the
bachelor’s
degree
in
1937,
the
master’s
in
1939
and
the
doctorate
in
1940.
Always
an
outstanding
student,
as
an
undergraduate
he
won
scholarships
and
was
elected
to
Phi
Beta
Kappa
and
as
a
graduate
was
made
a
teaching
fellow.
The
need
to
help
others
and
a
special
sympathy
for
the
young
led
him
to
choose
the
career
of
a
teacher.
After
beginning
his
professional
work
at
Swarthmore
College,
which
later
called
him
back
twice,
first
from
UCLA
and
then
from
Illinois,
he
came
to
Stanford
University
there
to
remain
except
for
one
year
as
Fulbright
Research
Professor
at
Nuffield
College,
Oxford.
Reasons
of
health
and
the
desire
to
husband
his
resources
in
order
to
get
on
with
his
research led
him
to
decline
repeated
invitations
to
go
as
visiting
professor
to
other
institutions,
although
for
one
term
while
continuing
his
work
at
Stanford
he
did
give
a
seminar
at
the
University
of
California,
Berkeley.
Both
as
a
teacher
and
as
a
research
scholar,
Professor
Leavelle
was
primarily
interested
in
the
political
theory
field.
An
exciting
if
exacting
classroom
teacher,
he
became
a
general
favorite
among
undergraduates
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