In some circles, Robert McClure is best known as the senior associate dean in charge of external relations. This is the position he’ll leave at the end of June, concurrent with John Palmer’s retirement.

He’s being honored, however, for what he was before and plans to be again (starting next year). That’s a teacher.

“No one is more committed to advancing the cause of teaching,” says Palmer, who has created and made a lead gift to the Robert D. McClure Professorship for Teaching Excellence; fund raising for this endowment is under way. The professorship will provide three-year appointments and supplemental funding to senior faculty members who demonstrate sustained high-quality teaching.

This fits McClure’s legacy. Shortly after joining the political science department in 1969 he built a reputation as one of Syracuse’s favorite professors, earning a Chancellor’s Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement, SU Scholar/Teacher of the Year, and similar annual awards given by student government and the alumni. He also directed the University Honors Program for three years. No slouch as a scholar, either, he co-wrote The Unseeing Eye: The Myth of Television Power in National Elections, named one the most influential books in the last half of the 20th Century by the American Association of Public Opinion Research. 

In his first few years as associate dean, much of his effort was on the  academic front—creation of the interdisciplinary MAX courses, for example. Only later, as the School grew, did McClure zero in on alumni relations, fund raising, etc.—a job that also fit him well. “Bob is gregarious and outgoing,” Palmer says. “He genuinely likes people and connecting with their interests.”

Despite the shifting duties, McClure’s impact over 15 years, Palmer says, is as an all-around advocate, liaison, and second-in-command. “Bob and I have been in a partnership for the past 15 years and you can’t easily separate out our respective achievements,” Palmer says. “He shares in the credit for what has been accomplished.”

Following a year’s sabbatical, McClure will be back in the classroom, teaching—or, as he puts it, “earning an honest living.”

—Dana Cooke

This article appeared in the Spring 2003 print edition of Maxwell Perspective; © 2003 Maxwell School of Syracuse University. To request a copy, e-mail dlcooke@maxwell.syr.edu.