Political Science Prof. Byron Daynes Dies at Age 77

June 21, 2015

Byron Wilford "Bill" Daynes, a professor of political science at DePauw University from 1971 to 1990, died June 7. He was 77 years old.

Born October 26, 1937, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Daynes earned a B.A. and M.S. in political science from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.  He then joined the DePauw faculty, and left in 1990 to teach for 24 years at BYU.

While in Greencastle, Daynes spent the summer of 1973 as a research assistant for Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton '52.  The following summer, a Great Lakes College Association (GLCA) project sent the professor to Yugoslavia to research air and water pollution.  A paper stemming from that experience was presented to the Indiana Academy of Social Sciences.

During his 42 years of teaching, Dr. Daynes pursued many interests, including constitutional law, social policy, the presidency and the environment, politics in literature, and Japanese American internment. He wrote 16 books (many in multiple editions), including To Govern a Nation: Presidential Power and Politics and White House Politics and the Environment: Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush. Daynes also authored more than 60 articles and a like number of papers for conferences.

In 2006, he was named a William J. Clinton Distinguished Fellow at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. (at left: a 1974 photo of Professor Daynes from the DePauw Archives)

Survivors include his wife, Kathryn M. Daynes '73, who was an instructor of English at DePauw from 1976-81.  She went on to become an assistant professor of history at BYU.

An obituary is available here.

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