[Pols-announce] Professor Emeritus Ron Francisco

[Haider-Markel, Donald Patrick]

The KU community is saddened to announce the passing of Professor Emeritus Ron Francisco at the age of 70 after a long illness. He was with his family in Oklahoma.

Francisco was a noted scholar of protest, repression, and social movements in political science. His lasting contribution includes several books on collective action issues, most recently Collective Action Theory and Empirical Evidence in 2010, and a series of articles. Perhaps most notably Francisco spent countless hours gathering data for public use on protest activity and government repression around the world. Ron's research in public documents was wide-ranging and he often shared tidbits with colleagues based on their research interests, sometimes inspiring collaborations and new research projects.

Students at KU praised Francisco's courses and his teaching style and methods. He was always viewed as fair, but rigorous, demanding that his students engage the world around them. Francisco was also known for his dry humor in the classroom, leaving long-term impressions on his students. His excellence in teaching was recognized through a number of University-wide teaching awards over the course of his more than 40 years teaching.


Ron also had interests and skills beyond professional ones. He was an avid reader, reading well outside of his adopted discipline. He became a student of finance, even writing a self-published book on personal finances specifically for academics. He was always happy to give investing advice to fellow faculty members and his students. Ron also became an accomplished runner, keeping an intensive regimen until late in life.

Francisco completed his PhD in political science from the University of Illinois and joined the faculty in the Department of Political Science at KU in 1974. At KU he also held an affiliate appointment with Russian and East European Studies. He served as chair of the Department of Political Science from 1994 to 1998. He retired from KU in 2014 and was granted Emeritus Professor status.

Francisco is survived by his wife Deborah and son Chris.

There will be no services held by the family. We have sent our regards and flowers to Deb and Chris.
DHM


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