Ronald M. Stout

Ronald M. Stout, 80, professor emeritus of political science and a founding faculty member of the University�s Graduate School of Public Affairs (GSPA), died on Feb. 1 at St. Peter�s Hospital.

Stout was a coordinator from 1956 to 1958 for the New York State Public Administration Training Program, which became SUNY�s Graduate School of Public Affairs in 1962. He had been a professor of political science at Colgate University from 1946 to 1962.

When the GSPA became part of the University at Albany, Stout became a faculty member and the acting chair of the School�s fledgling Department of Political Science. He was also a chair of the GSPA faculty.

He retired in 1984, but continued to teach a graduate seminar in one of his specialties, administrative law, as well as serve on dissertation committees of Ph.D. students, until the early 1990s.

"He was a specialist in state government and administrative law, and for faculty and students he was one of the most respected members of the Graduate School of Public Affairs," said Joseph Zimmerman, a department colleague. "His expertise really bridged the curriculum of the entire school, since he was a renowned scholar in both public administration and political science."

After participating in a University scholar-exchange program with the Irish Institute of Public Administration in Dublin, Stout became fascinated with comparing the legal systems of the U.S. and Ireland. His resulting book, Administrative Law in Ireland, released in 1984, remains the leading reference text on the subject.

Born in Indiana, Penn., Stout earned his bachelor�s master�s and doctoral degrees in political science from Syracuse University. Before beginning his teaching career at Colgate, he served in the Army Counterintelligence Corps during World War II. In 1979, he retired from the Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel.

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