SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
W. Duane Lockard
Scholarship Fund
APPLY BY
MARCH 14, 2025
W. Duane Lockard, Professor Emeritus of Princeton University and 30-year resident of Brewster, Cape Cod, died on June 19, 2006 after a short illness at age 84. Mr. Lockard was born in Owings, West Virginia, coal mining country. During the Depression, Mr. Lockard began working at age 13, starting in an all-night drug store, a restaurant, and then as a coal miner. He continued to work several jobs while attending the University of West Virginia, where he met his future wife, Beverly White of Plainfield, New Jersey. Mr. Lockard later wrote of his early years with Beverly: "She had an enormous effect on me in a thousand ways, encouraging me, teaching me, introducing me to books and ideas that opened a new world to me." They were happily married for 45 years until her death in 1987.
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In 1942, Mr. Lockard left college and volunteered for the Air Force, becoming a carrier pilot stationed in England. On D-Day, he flew several planeloads of paratroopers into St. Mere Eglise. He flew 105 combat hours in all, including in the Battles of the Bulge, Bastogne, Holland and the Rhine. During a mission to the Rhine, he flew his plane and a badly injured crew member home safely, despite his plane having been severely damaged by enemy fire and his having seen the plane of his closest friend go down in flames with no survivors. At the end of the war he flew many planeloads of POWs and concentration camp survivors home to safety. Many years later, he wrote an account of his wartime experiences which has been placed in World War II historical archives.
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When the war ended, Mr. Lockard attended Yale University on the GI bill and earned a PhD in political science. He had initially planned to be an attorney but loved academic life and became a college professor instead. He taught at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut until 1961, when he went to Princeton University, where he remained until retirement. Over the years, he taught courses on such topics as state and local government, urban politics, black politics and Appalachian studies, and served as Chairman of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He was very generous with his time in helping his students. Prof. Andrew Polsky of Hunter College, who became a political science professor himself, recently wrote about Mr. Lockard: "You did your students the great service of treating us as though we had something important to say, and you wore your own learning lightly. I don't believe I've ever seen a scholar who cared less about putting his own ego on display in a seminar.' Mr. Lockard wrote many books and articles, including "The Politics of State and Local Government," "The Perverted Priorities of American Politics," and "Coal: A Memoir."
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Mr. Lockard was a lifetime member of the Democratic party, and served as a Connecticut state senator between 1954 and 1956. He was an active member of the NAACP in the 1950s, actively supported the civil rights movement in the 1960s and fought bigotry all his life. He chaired the New Jersey Governor's Commission on Migrant Labor, which resulted in legislative reforms improving the working conditions of migrant laborers. He wrote frequently about coal mine safety, including an article entitled "Blood on the Coal." As a former student recently wrote of Mr. Lockard, "He was always a mensch when it mattered."
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In retirement on Cape Cod, Mr. Lockard painted, wrote poetry, read extensively, wrote books and articles and worked in his vegetable garden. He is survived by his three daughters, Linda, Jay and Leslie.