In Memoriam: Diane Divers Blair

Diane Blair, a long-time supporter of Publius: The Journal of Federalism and member of the Publius Editorial Advisory Board, passed away on Monday, 26 June 2000, at her home in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at age 61. The cause of death was lung cancer. Diane was always a wonderfully delightful friend and energetic colleague for the Publius community and for political scientists across the country. A pleasure to be with professionally and personally, we will miss her insightful and down-to-earth contributions to the life of the journal, and her inability to give a planned lecture at Publius' home base, Lafayette College. Diane's life was devoted not only to the academic world but also to the world of political action. A close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton since the early 1970s, Diane served as a senior advisor to President Clinton's 1992 election campaign and as an official historian of the Clinton-Gore campaign. She also served as an advisor to President Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign. We can especially recall her excitement about Clinton's 1992 election victory and her delight at spending the night before Clinton's inauguration at Blair House in Washington, D.C.-stories told with genuine astonishment and no hint of suddenly inside-the-beltway superiority. In turn, the Clintons visited Diane at her home in Fayetteville several times during her illness. Born in Washington, D.C., on 25 October 1938, Diane graduated from Cornell University Phi Beta Kappa in 1959. She then worked for the President's Committee on Government Contracts, conducted research for the U.S. Senate's Special Committee on Unemployment, and served as a legislative assistant for Stuart Symington, Democratic U.S. senator from Missouri. Upon moving to Arkansas in 1963, she worked for Governors Dale L. Bumpers and David H. Pryor, and also earned an M.A. in political science from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in 1967. During the following year, she joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas, and, after retiring in 1997, was professor emeritus of political science at the university at the time of her death. Her teaching acumen had been recognized by her receipt of the university's Master Teacher Award and being named Outstanding Teacher by three student organizations in 1976 and 1980. The university also awarded her an honorary doctorate of laws degree in 1997. Her principal fields of interest were American state politics, federalism and intergovernmental relations, and women and politics. She combined these interests very nicely in one of her first publications, Silent Hattie Speaks: The Personal Journal of Senator Hattie Caraway (Greenwood 1979), edited as