Remembering Gerald M. Pomper, Longtime Distinguished American Political Science Scholar

Gerald M. Pomper, a national scholar in voter behavior and American presidential politics who dedicated his nearly six-decade career to Rutgers University, died on May 21. He was 91.

Pomper joined the faculty at Rutgers in 1962, where he became a beloved Board of Governors Professor at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. He continued mentoring generations of scholars well beyond his official retirement in 2021. Called the "Dean of American Political Science" by political historian Allan Lichtman, Pomper authored and co-authored 22 books, including Elections in America: Control and Influence in Democratic Politics; Voters' Choice: Varieties of American Electoral Behavior; Passions and Interests: Political Party Concepts of American Democracy; and Party Renewal in America.

"Gerry was an exemplary scholar, educator, and public servant. He embodied the Eagleton Institute's mission to link the study of American politics with the practice and modeled the sort of engaged democratic citizenship we have taught our students for 70 years," said Elizabeth Matto, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics. "At this moment in American politics, Gerry's dedication to democracy and good government seems particularly poignant."

Educated at Columbia and Princeton, Pomper was a Fulbright professor at Tel-Aviv University, Oxford, and Australian National University, and held the first Tip O'Neill Chair in Public Life at Northeastern University. He was honored for career achievement by the American Political Science Association and frequently served as an expert witness on campaign finance, drawing legislative districts, and political party regulation. At Rutgers-New Brunswick, he served as chairman of both the university and Livingston College political science departments, and chaired a select committee that proposed major changes to undergraduate education on the New Brunswick campus.

"Rutgers meant everything to him," said his second wife, Sandra Bergelson, a longtime Rutgers staffer and former chair of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute's (OLLI) advisory council. "He thought his students were extraordinarily bright. On his 90th birthday, we reached out to a lot of his colleagues and students, and I have a book of wonderful remembrances that they responded with."

The pair's own story was intertwined with the university community. Bergelson first met Pomper when he was an OLLI instructor and both were married to their first spouses. Years later, following the deaths of their respective partners in 2014, they reconnected through OLLI as fellow students. While taking a course in modern Japanese literature, they bonded over Shusaku Endo's Deep River-a profound meditation on mourning. Their subsequent courtship and 2023 marriage became the subject of a Rutgers Continuing Studies article and video.

Bergelson described her husband as "relentless" in his passion for his work. Even while battling heart and lung conditions, he was at his computer writing every day, planning lectures for his OLLI students through the fall semester.

"He was a very, very dedicated teacher. He taught to the very end," Bergelson said. "He was in rehab this fall. I brought my laptop there, and he finished a lecture."

That unwavering commitment to his students was "typical of Gerry's tenacity," noted longtime colleague Ross Baker, who arrived at Rutgers in 1969 when Pomper was already a tenured professor.

"He was a very demanding professor in terms of what he expected of students. He was no pushover," Baker said. "Certainly, the graduate students for whom he was their dissertation supervisor benefited from that."

Pomper left a lasting imprint on the institutional fabric of Rutgers. As the first chair of the political science department at Livingston College, he was instrumental in the department's eventual consolidation and later move to Douglass Residential College.

"He was very much devoted to the university," Baker added. "We were collaborators. I always respected his intelligence and his scholarship. He was heavily involved in the recruitment and hiring of faculty. He was a good departmental citizen."

Pomper was also a man who lived his scholarship, lending his time and expertise to his hometown of Highland Park. He served on multiple municipal committees and boards, including the board of education and the zoning board. Believing deeply in civic education and civil liberties, he also assisted in summer institutes for high school teachers, led voter registration drives, conducted evaluations for New Jersey's former Department of Higher Education, and served as chair of the Free Speech Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"He became involved in everything that involved Highland Park," said Bergelson. "At the end, we agreed we had to sell the house and move, but he made me promise that we would not move out of Highland Park. It meant that much to him."

Predeceased by his wife, Marlene, in 2013, Pomper is survived by his wife, Sandra Bergelson, his three children, and five grandchildren.