Founder of CSUF Political Science Department Dies

John Brown Mason, the founding chairman of Cal State Fullerton’s political science department, died of natural causes Sunday. He was 88.

Mason, a former State Department official, joined the faculty of the university as a charter member in 1960 following his career in government service and teaching at Georgetown University, Oberlin College, Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin.

In 1945, as a member of the War Department’s Patterson Historical Commission, Mason was the only political scientist assigned to question Hitler’s captured military leaders.

While at Cal State Fullerton, one of Mason’s most significant contributions was a two-volume Research Resources guide to social science reference works, the first such comprehensive guide of its kind. He also wrote two books, “Hitler’s First Foes” in 1936 and “The Danzig Dilemma” in 1946.

Mason was named the university’s Outstanding Professor in 1969. He retired from teaching five years later. In 1983, the John Brown Mason Professorship was established in his honor to acknowledge the accomplishments of faculty members in the political science department.

Mason, who was born in Germany to American parents, arrived in the United States when he was 19. He earned a Ph.D in political science at the University of Wisconsin in 1929.

He is survived by his wife, Nan; daughter, Susan McGovney; son, Robert Mason, and three grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the John Mason Professorship/CSUF Foundation in the university’s political science department.

Funeral services are still pending.