It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Professor Arnold Meltsner.

Professor Meltsner was one of the founding faculty members of the Goldman School of Public Policy. He taught "Pol Org" for years and he helped generations of students learn how to think like policy analysts and to write clear, lucid, and persuasive memos.

Arnold came late to academia after a distinguished career in government, and he was devoted to the notion of policy analysis. From 1975 to 1981 he edited the journal Policy Analysis which, along with the Harvard Kennedy School's Public Policy journal was combined to create the Journal of Public Policy and Management in 1981 which is the major journal in the field of public policy. He wrote many books that dealt with how policy analysts actually do their work including the Politics of City Revenues (1971) which used Oakland as a case study; The Policy Organization (with Chris Bellavita) (1982); Policy Analysts in the Bureaucracy (1986); and Rules for Rulers: The Politics of Advice (1990).  

Arnold was committed to the notion that policy analysis mattered, and he was certainly one of the people who defined the character of GSPP.  Among other things, he did much to define the School's strong orientation to client-centered policy analysis and its commitment to analysts who could write clearly, analytically, and persuasively. He was also among the first faculty to establish a graduate fellowship, the Arnold J. Meltsner Graduate Student Support Fund.

Arnold's enthusiasm, sense of humor, and commitment will be sorely missed.