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December 31, 2008

ISU professor, political expert James McDowell dies at 67

McDowell wrote extensively for professional and popular publications

By Arthur Foulkes

TERRE HAUTE — Terre Haute and Indiana State University lost one of its best ambassadors over the weekend.

James Lynn McDowell, a professor of political science at ISU and frequently quoted expert on local, state and national politics, died Sunday at age 67 after a battle with cancer.

“Jim McDowell was really a perfect example of why it’s so great to live in a college town,” said Max Jones, editor of the Tribune-Star, which frequently published McDowell’s insights on political affairs for more than 25 years. McDowell could take complicated political topics and translate them into “curbside” language anyone could understand, Jones said.

McDowell also wrote extensively for professional and popular publications on politics. He was also frequently quoted in national and international publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Congressional Quarterly.

“Professor McDowell was quoted in periodicals literally all over the world,” said Dave Taylor, media relations director for ISU. McDowell was particularly sought-after during the 2008 presidential campaign when national attention turned to Vigo County’s role as a predictor of presidential election results, Taylor said. “He was a great ambassador for the university,” he said.

In addition to teaching courses and doing research at ISU since 1967, McDowell also tried to give his students important real-life experience, Taylor said. McDowell taught courses at the Indiana Statehouse where students did internships for state lawmakers, he said.

Despite his notoriety, McDowell never took himself or his role as a political scientist too seriously, his colleagues and family said.

“He never, ever introduced himself as ‘doctor’,” said McDowell’s wife, Judy. Once, at a university event, she introduced him as “Doctor McDowell” and “he looked at me like I’d smacked him,” she said.

A yellowed Wizard of Id cartoon on McDowell’s office door in Holmstedt Hall gives an idea of his professional modesty. In the cartoon, one character asks another, “Do you have any education?” The other character replies, “I have a Ph.D. in political science,” to which the first character responds, “I take that as a ‘No’.”

“He knew Ph.D. stood for ‘piled higher and deeper,’” Judy McDowell said with a laugh.

McDowell’s expertise has been sought by journalists and others for decades. He wrote a political profile of the Great Lake states for public television’s News Hour during the Clinton presidency, offered comments on the 2008 Indiana primary for the Los Angeles Times and commented on the 2006 congressional elections for the San Francisco Chronicle, to name just a very few recent achievements.

In the spring, the Los Angeles Times quoted McDowell predicting that Hillary Clinton would do well in Indiana’s southern counties because some votes in Indiana’s Democratic primary would fall along racial lines. As it turned out, Clinton won every Hoosier county south of Indianapolis except Monroe.

Among political science students at ISU, McDowell was highly respected and looked on almost as a “rock star,” said James McDowell II, son of the professor and a former ISU student. Among non-political science majors, McDowell was sometimes less loved because his courses could be tough, McDowell II, said.

In addition to being a respected professor and political commentator, McDowell loved his children, his five grandchildren and was “just a really nice man,” his wife said. He taught his entire career at ISU and never seemed to regret that, she said. “He enjoyed his students and hearing what they had to say about things. He remembered being young and kind of idealistic about things,” she said.

“He just had so much composure,” James McDowell II said of his father. “He took the good, he took the bad and he just was never too high, never too low. [He] was able to look at the humor in just about anything,” he said.

McDowell, despite a calm exterior, loved the excitement of backwards and upside down roller coasters, Judy McDowell said. He rode roller coasters all over the country and, despite his illness, made trips this year to Holiday World and Six Flags, she said. “He didn’t feel well, but we still went.”

He also loved the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team and the Beach Boys, Judy McDowell said. She and her husband attended a Beach Boys concert earlier this year in French Lick, she said. “He always loved it when [Beach Boy] Mike Love would say ‘Had I known we’d have been around this long, I’d have taken better care of my body,’” she said with a laugh.

McDowell’s insights and comments on local, state and national politics set a standard for other political commentators, the Tribune-Star’s Jones said. “He was smart, well read, articulate and had a sense of humor,” he said.

McDowell was very accessible and always willing to share his knowledge, insights and wisdom, Jones said. “He would engage with you on anything. He knew what was going on.”

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.

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