Former ASA president Gerald Bender passed away on May 22, 2017.
Associate Professor Emeritus of International Relations Gerald “Jerry” Bender, an Africanist who was considered one of the leading experts on Angola, died May 22 in Los Angeles from emphysema and kidney failure. He was 75.
Bender’s career was dedicated to the study of the politics, languages and culture of Angola and southern Africa generally, with a particular interest in United States foreign policy toward the region. He traveled to Africa nearly 100 times and, according to friends and colleagues, served as an unofficial ambassador for the United States while remaining a passionate advocate for Angola and its people back at home.
“Jerry Bender liked to say that he was an activist scholar,” said Professor Emeritus of International Relations John Odell. “He wanted to intervene in U.S. foreign policy to make it better, as well as teach and study the subject.”
While Bender was completing dissertation research in the mid-’70s in Angola, then a Portuguese colony, civil war broke out. He met the leaders of the revolutionary movement, who eventually became the top leaders of the independent country.
“For decades he kept returning, maintaining those contacts,” Odell said. “Because of his remarkable expertise, Congress called on him to testify. He was proud of his contribution to passage of legislation during the 1970s to halt U.S. support for a counter-revolutionary movement in Angola.”
See the full tribute published by USC Today here: https://today.usc.edu/in-memoriam-gerald-jerry-bender-75/
