Alumni Hall of Fame
Joseph LaPalombara
Joseph LaPalombara, a high school dropout from "Little Italy" Chicago's Near West Side, Joseph LaPalombara was allowed to matriculate at the University after passing an entrance examination under the auspices of a post World War II program. At Illinois he found an intellectual home and "devoured" the political science courses taught by faculty such as Charles Hagan, Clarence Berdahl, Francis Wilson and Charles Kneir. Along with achieving academic distinctions (Phi Beta Kappa and Bronze Tablet), he was involved in campus politics and was elected president of the student senate. He received his A.B. in 1947 and completed his M.A. in 1950 while teaching at Oregon State University.
After obtaining his Ph.D. in comparative politics from Princeton University, Dr. Palombara embarked on a long and distinguished career as a thinker, teacher, and leader. At Yale he lead the department of Political Science as chair over two terms and served as director of the Institution for Social Policy Studies. As a scholar, he has published over a dozen books and over 200 journal articles. As a teacher, he has taught generations of young people who in turn have made important contributions in political science and to public discourse in government and civic life. These include students such as Robert Putnam, Hugh Heclo, and Sidney Tarrow. As a builder and innovator, he was a founding member of the European Consortium for Political Research and of the Consiglio Italiano per le Scienze Sociali. As a thinker, he has advised an innumerable number of research organizations, state and federal agencies, and corporation such as the Social Science Research Council; Twentieth Century Fund; Carnegie Corporation; American Council of Learned Societies; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Rockefeller, Ford and Olivetti foundations; the U.S. Department of State; the Foreign Service Training Institute; the Agency for International Development; Alcoa; Ciba Geigy; Citicorp; Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi; Exxon International; Fiat; General Electric; W.R. Grace; IBM; Montedison; Praxair; SBC Warburg; Telecom Italia, S.I.A.D. (Bergamo) and Union Carbide.
His research has been funded with fellowships and grants from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; the Social Science Research Council; the Ford, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim foundations; the Twentieth Century Fund; the European University Institute and the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin.
He has been honored by many organizations. He is a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been honored as a Knight Commander in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In recognition of his scholarship on Italian politics, he has been awarded medals of honor by the Presidency of the Italian Republic and by Italy’s Constitutional Court.
Dr. LaPalombara "retired" in 2001 and as the Arnold Wolfers Professsor Emeritus of Political Science and Management, he continues to inspire students in the Yale University School of Management with courses on international management. Outside the classroom, he serves as the president of the Italian-American Multimedia Corporation (New York).