LANDAU, Martin 1921-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born July 12, 1921, in New York, NY; died of cancer December 27, 2004, in Berkeley, CA. Educator, political scientist, and author. Landau was a former political science professor at the University of California at Berkeley who was best known for his expertise in organizational theory. He served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II before attending the Brooklyn College of the City University of New York where he earned his B.A. in 1947. He completed an M.P.A. degree at New York University in 1948, followed by a Ph.D. in political science in 1952. Landau was profoundly influenced by his World War II experience, during which he helped liberate a Nazi concentration camp. This heightened his sympathy for the downtrodden, and throughout his life he was an advocate of the common man. For example, in the 1950s he joined the United Mine Workers union to support their cause, even though he was not himself a miner; his first job was at Lincoln University, a traditionally all-black campus. Landau returned to Brooklyn College to teach in 1952, rising to the post of distinguished professor in 1970. While there, he notably backed the hiring of John Hope Franklin, a well-known black historian, and was involved in planning sessions with Franklin for the Brown versus Board of Education case. He left Brooklyn for Berkeley in 1972, teaching there until his 1991 retirement. While at Berkeley he was awarded the E. Harris Harbison Award from the Danforth Foundation for gifted teaching in 1969. As a scholar, one of Landau's most memorable contributions was his theories about organization. He held that, contrary to the prevailing view that corporate and political organizations should be streamlined to improve efficiency, large groups should allow for some duplication of responsibility so that there are back-up systems in place in case they are necessary. Landau noted that the Founding Fathers wrote such duplication into the system of checks and balances that characterize the U.S. Constitution, thus creating a more stable governmental organization. In his later career, he played an important role in preparing for Britain's handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997 by directing the Hong Kong Project at Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. Landau contributed to many professional journals and was the author of Political Theory and Political Science: Studies in the Methodology of Political Inquiry (1972).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

San Francisco Chronicle, January 10, 2005.

ONLINE

University of California at Berkeley Web site,http://www.berkeley.edu/ (January 18, 2005).