Professor Emeritus Doris A. Graber passed away at her Evanston home on February 17, 2018. Dr. Graber, a political scientist who spent most of her academic career at the University of Illinois in Chicago with additional appointments at Northwestern, the University of Chicago and Harvard, was a researcher and prolific author including 15 textbooks and over 50 book chapters and lectures worldwide. She provided seminal work on the effect of public opinion on the presidency and foreign policy, the role of the media in American politics and political psychology.
In a career that spanned over 70 years, she developed survey research techniques that are the foundation of much political science research done today. In addition to her academic pursuits, she was an avid skier and world traveler having visited every continent including a trek to the North Pole.
Dr. Graber was often recognized as a pioneer for women in her chosen field but also within university academics, mentoring hundreds of students and colleagues while providing an example for many young women as they entered their careers. Professor Graber won global recognition for her academic accomplishments but was most proud and supportive of her equally recognized husband, the late Dr. Tom Graber and their five children.
She authored many articles and book reviews in Public Opinion Quarterly and was the inaugural Fellow of MAPOR in 1988. She also served as MAPOR’s President in 1980-81, and one of MAPOR’s student paper awards was renamed in her honor in 2015.