Don Krasher Price (23 January 1910 – 9 July 1995) was an American

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

who served as the founding dean of the

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

from 1958 to 1976. He wrote a number of books about

United States history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely ...

and

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

Education

Price was educated at

Middlesboro High School Middlesboro High School (proper name, Middlesborough Senior High School) is a public high school in Middlesboro, Kentucky, United States one of three schools operated by Middlesboro Independent Schools History Middlesboro High School has been ed ...

. He studied at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

, Tennessee from 1927 to 1931, and then came to Merton College, Oxford for three years on a Rhodes Scholarship. He was awarded a second class degree in History in 1934, and

B.Litt. Bachelor of Letters (BLitt or LittB; Latin ' or ') is a second undergraduate university degree in which students specialize in an area of study relevant to their own personal, professional, or academic development. This area of study may have been t ...

in 1935.

Career

After serving as a lieutenant in the

US Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and maritime law enforcement, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Price joined the Bureau of the Budget in 1946. He was deputy chairman of the

US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...

's Research & Development Board from 1952 to 1953, then vice-president of the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

until 1959. In 1958 he was appointed as the founding Dean at Harvard University's Graduate School of Public Administration. That same year, he was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1960. From 1961 to 1963 he acted as an adviser to

President Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until assassination of Joh ...

on the structure and operations of the

US Federal Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fed ...

. Price retired from the

(as the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration had been renamed following Kennedy's assassination) in 1976. Price returned to Oxford in 1985 to spend a year at

Balliol College Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...

as George Eastman Visiting Professor, during which time he was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

by the university. A native of

Middlesboro, Kentucky Middlesboro ()Rennick, Robert. ''Kentucky Place Names'', University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1987p. 196 Accessed 26 August 2013. is a home rule-class city in Bell County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 10,334 at the 2010 U.S ...

, Price died on 9 July 1995 in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson College, and a campus of Massachusetts Bay Communit ...

at the age of 85, as a result of complications from Alzheimer's disease.

Publications

*''City Manager Government in the US'' (1940; co-author) *''Government and Science'' (1954) *'' The Scientific Estate'' (1965) *''America's Unwritten Constitution'' (1985)

References

1910 births 1995 deaths Alumni of Merton College, Oxford American political scientists American Rhodes Scholars Neurological disease deaths in Massachusetts Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Harvard Kennedy School deans People from Middlesboro, Kentucky People from Wellesley, Massachusetts Members of the American Philosophical Society 20th-century political scientists {{US-polisci-bio-stub