Samuel Hutchison Beer
Samuel Hutchison Beer, the distinguished Harvard political scientist, died in his sleep at the age of 97 in Washington, D.C., on April 7, 2009. His special field was British politics, in which he was for years the world’s leading expert. But he also studied the American political system, and, for contrast to academic life, made himself active in American politics as a life-long Democrat and Chairman of Americans for Democratic Action (1959-1962). He was a man brave beyond the calling of a professor: in June 1944 he fought in the U.S. Army in Normandy, earning a Bronze Star; and his peacetime hobbies included rock climbing and skydiving. Sam Beer was born on July 28, 1911, in Bucyrus, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in 1932. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1932 to 1935, and married Roberta Frances Reed on June 22, 1935. ...