Milton J. Esman *42

Milton Esman, the John S. Knight Professor of Government emeritus at Cornell University, died Feb. 7, 2015. He was 96.

Esman graduated from Cornell in 1939, and earned a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton in 1942. He enlisted in the Army in 1942 and studied Japanese at Harvard. As a young second lieutenant on Gen. MacArthur’s staff, he participated in the writing of the Japanese constitution.

He was a United States foreign aid officer from 1954 to 1959, lastly in Saigon. In 1959, he joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, where he was director of the economic and social development department. From 1966 to 1968, he was the senior adviser for public administration to the prime minister of Malaysia. Esman went to Cornell in 1969 as the John S. Knight Professor of International Studies and director of the Center for International Studies.

Esman wrote or contributed to more than 10 books and many articles. He was one of the originators of the concept of institution-building in developing countries, and studied diasporas globally. He published his last book in 2013, titled The Emerging American Garrison State.

Esman is survived by Janice, his wife of 66 years; three children; and four grandchildren.  

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.