Public servant, passionate academic and, ultimately, a teacher

Though the loud, impassioned message of a quiet and sensitive man will no longer be heard in the classroom, it will never cease to echo in the halls of the politics department and resound in the minds of the students, colleagues, friends and family of professor Gerald Garvey GS '62.

Garvey, a professor in the University's politics department since 1968, passed away Sunday.

Though his physique was tall and frail, Garvey's commitment to teaching and to those he loved was unparalleled in strength. Family always remained Garvey's first priority, but he also demonstrated the same kind of devotion he felt for his kin toward his students and the subjects he taught.

"I'll never forget that when my sister was very sick," Garvey's son Scott remembered, "the first thing my dad said was, 'We'll sell the house.' "

Within that same house, the elder Garvey also practiced giving lectures, his son recalled — lectures he would deliver without notes the following day in class, defying the organized formality of a Wilson School bowl with his casual stride across the room.

In POL 326: American Bureaucracy and Public Administration, which he taught in addition to POL 221: American Democracy, Garvey only lectured a portion of the time, devoting much of the class to eliciting student participation and input.

By the second day of the course, Garvey knew the name of every student, and made sure to call on each at least once, said Gillian Marum '00, whom Garvey taught and advised on her junior paper.

"He really cared about what he was teaching," said Ben Sommers '00, who had Garvey as a professor and preceptor for POL 326. He remembered that Garvey wanted his students to "empathize with the people working in the public sector" on a personal level rather than just to understand the material.

Garvey helped bring the human aspect of bureaucracy and administration to life by assigning students to play roles taken from case studies in the textbook he wrote.

"He loved, loved teaching that course," said Chris Mackie GS '92, who precepted for POL 326 two years ago. "As lecture got closer, he'd start looking happier. And it was a really happy experience teaching with him. He was as helpful and supportive and generous to the preceptors as he could be."

"I'll remember [the class] for a long time as the most pleasant teaching experience I've had here," Mackie added.

Mackie also noted that Garvey was always available and eager to offer advice to students. "Wild horses wouldn't have kept him out of the office hours when he was supposed to be there," he said.

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Marum described the conference she had with Garvey about her JP during a time when his wife was sick. She recalled entering the professor's office to an apology. "He said, 'I'm so, so sorry, Gillian,' " Marum remembered. Garvey had been distracted and had not had a chance to read her draft, she explained.

"He said, 'Go to the student center and come back in 20 minutes,' " she said, and by the time she returned he had read the paper and had a long list of detailed, intelligent comments.

Though Garvey held an impressive list of positions before coming to Princeton, he never let his past accomplishments speak louder than his character or the content of his classes.

"You tended to learn things about Gerry over time," Mackie said, remembering the professor making passing comments such as, " 'When I was working for McNamara . . .' "

For instance, while the knowledge Garvey shared in his classes drew on his work in the public sector, colleagues said he would never intentionally mention his roles — policy analyst and adviser for the Pentagon, special assistant to the assistant secretary of defense during the early 1960s and executive director of a presidential task force on United States-Indian relations.

His students only knew that last year he was awarded the Stanley Kelley award for distinguished teaching.

Garvey's colleagues said they admired him for his character and approach to teaching. "I found him to be invariably intelligent and gracious," said political philosophy program director George Kateb, adding that he once asked that any committee on which he served also include Garvey. "He really was an impressive colleague in every way."

Jameson Doig, politics department chair, said he wants to establish an award to celebrate Garvey's legacy. "It's just the kind of thing he'd like to have as a memorial."

Doig said the award would be made available for public service internships and students writing senior theses to "carry the message over of the kind of important role [Garvey] had and students had in his life."

An intimate family service will be held at his home Friday. To allow for all those who loved and admired him to pay tribute, a memorial service will take place in the University Chapel either during reunions or in the fall, Garvey's son said.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions be sent to the Cancer Institute of New Jersey at Robert Wood Johnson hospital in New Brunswick or to the Princeton Medical Center.