Gabriel Almond, 91; Professor Was Expert on ‘Political Culture’

Gabriel A. Almond, 91, Stanford political science expert on “political culture” whose doctoral thesis about the role of the wealthy in New York City politics was published 60 years after he wrote it, died Dec. 25. Almond died in Palo Alto after several years of heart disease, heart attacks and bypass surgeries.

A prolific writer and editor of books of political analysis, Almond was born in Rock Island, Ill., and educated at the University of Chicago, where he wrote the dissertation “Plutocracy and Politics in New York City” in 1938. When it was finally published in 1998, it became an instant underground classic.

The University of Chicago had refused to publish the effort in 1938 because it was so unflattering to the “idle rich” and individuals such as John D. Rockefeller, a major donor to the university.

Almond, who got his PhD despite the delayed publication, taught at Brooklyn College, Yale University, Princeton University and then Stanford from 1963 until his retirement in 1976.

He was a political analyst for the federal government during World War II and in the 1950s and early 1960s, including a stint at Santa Monica-based Rand Corp. He also was a visiting professor abroad, at universities including the University of Tokyo, Kiev State University, the University of Cambridge and Australian National University.