ONLY IN AMERICA: Lipset studied the conditions that favor democracy. Courtesy Lipset Family

SCHOLAR OF DEMOCRACY
In January, New York Times columnist David Brooks tackled the topic of income inequality in America. The piece was, at heart, a tribute to one of America’s foremost sociologists. “Nobody,” Brooks wrote, “was smarter on this subject than Seymour Martin Lipset.”

At the same time, Lipset’s son David was crafting a eulogy that focused less on his father’s achievements in the study of democracy and culture, and more on the antics he was known for among his family and friends. “He had a wit to him,” daughter Cici Lipset says. “He was very silly when he was not wearing his academic hat.”

Lipset, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and former political science professor, died December 31 at a hospital near his home in Virginia. He was 84.

Born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents in New York in 1922, Lipset attended City College of New York, where he became involved in leftist and socialist politics. He earned his doctorate at Columbia University in 1949 and taught there and at Harvard University and UC-Berkeley.

Lipset arrived at Stanford in the mid-1970s—perhaps a surprising addition to the stable of conservatives at the Hoover Institution. (He quit the Socialist Party in 1960 and considered himself a centrist.) But Cici Lipset, ’80, says he relished the independent research the post allowed. He moved back east in 1987, after the death of his wife Elsie. He held posts at George Mason University and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars until his death.

He was best known for explaining how America was unique—especially for not adopting socialism as most of Europe did. This country’s embrace of individualism prevented it, Lipset argued in such books as American Exceptionalism.

His wife Sydnee says his most significant personal quality was extraordinary kindness. When they were dating, she frequently had friends and colleagues pull her aside and tell her that because of Lipset they had gotten a job, had their book published or won an appointment to a think tank. “Academia is not noted for that,” she says. “It really is exemplary. Marty never felt diminished by the success of others.”

Lipset is survived by his wife, his daughter, sons David and Daniel, and six grandchildren.

PARTNERS IN BIOLOGY
Fungus experts David Dexter Perkins and Dorothy “Dot” Newmeyer Perkins, PhD ’52, husband and wife for 54 years, died within days of each other in January in Menlo Park.

David Perkins, who died January 2, at 87, of pneumonia, came to Stanford as an assistant professor and researcher in 1949. He focused on the fungus Neurospora, developing it as a model organism for use in genetics studies and cataloging strains of it worldwide. He was an editor of the journal Genetics from 1963 to 1967 and president of the Genetics Society of America in 1977, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1981.

Dorothy Perkins, who died January 6, at 84, worked in her husband’s lab for almost 50 years, conducting research on fungus and its use in genetic studies. A graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, she earned a master’s degree in botany-microbial genetics from Yale. Ill health forced her to retire in 1988, but she continued to edit scientific papers for her lab colleagues. The couple was known for their support of disadvantaged students, tutoring them and giving them work in the lab and financial support so they could continue to study science.

Survivors include a daughter, Susan; David’s sister; and Dorothy’s brother and sister.