J. Coleman, UCLA Foreign Studies Director, Dies

James Smoot Coleman, director of UCLA’s International Studies and Overseas Programs, has died after suffering a heart attack.

Coleman, 66, was responsible for coordinating both the foreign studies programs at UCLA, involving nations in Africa, the Soviet Bloc, Eastern Europe, the Near East, Asia and Latin America and the Center for International and Strategic Affairs, which studies arms control and security in world trouble spots.

ISOP is an umbrella organization that supports the faculty and student exchange programs at the Westwood campus as well as helping develop mutual-aid programs with other universities around the world.

Coleman came to UCLA in 1953 after receiving his master’s and doctorate degrees from Harvard University. He left in 1965 to head the political science and public administration departments at Makerere University College at the University of Africa in Uganda.

In 1967 he was named director of the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi in Kenya while also serving as an associate director and East Africa representative for the Rockefeller Foundation.

Coleman returned to UCLA in 1978 as a professor of political science and chairman of the Council on International and Comparative Studies. He was named ISOP director in 1984 and was a member of such organizations as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.

A resident of Brentwood, he is survived by his wife, Ursula, and sons James Jr. and Robert. He died Saturday.

Contributions may be sent to a memorial fund in his name. Checks should be made out to the Regents of the University of California, care of the ISOP office, UCLA, Los Angeles, 90024.