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StocktonAfterClass

Ron Stockton was a professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn for 48 years. His specialty was non-western politics and political change. He taught classes on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Religion and Politics, the Politics of Revolution, Non-Western politics, and American politics. He also taught in the Honors Program, focusing upon foundational readings from the 18th and 19th centuries. He has an interest in religion and politics and in the role of religio-ethnic groups in the political system. The listener can anticipate talks on Arab-Americans, Jews, African-Americans, the Scots-Irish, and Evangelicals. He has lectured and written on American politics, public opinion, and voting behavior and on the role of religious organizations and ideologies in the political system. There will be occasional discussions of books and films that address serious issues. And he has lectured and published and even taught a class on gravestones, especially those of different ethnic and religious groups such as Muslims, African-Americans, Jews, and Native Americans. The goal of the podcast series is to provide analysis and commentary by a political scientist to explain and make accessible political, historical, and cultural developments in the United States and around the world, and to give the listener analytical tools to understand those developments. It is also to entertain the listener.

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StocktonAfterClass

Famous People I Met Along the Way

June 01, 2025 • Ronald Stockton

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This is the last lecture I delivered in my academic career. I discovered that I had miscalculated the end of the semester and that I had an extra class. I did have a regular academic topic but my wife said, "You are a senior professor. You have taught 48 years. Your students see you as someone who has had a life time of experiences. They will forget an academic lecture but they will not forget your personal stories. Why not tell them about the famous political leaders you encountered during your lifetime."

So these are my reflections on 19 different people who crossed my path. The first two are Nixon and Kennedy when they were campaigning in 1960. The last was my friend Sibylle Laurischk, a member of the German Bundestag. Some of these stories are funny, some are affirming, some are deadly serious.

Those discussed include Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, George McGovern, Spiro Agnew, Jimmy Carter and Roslyn, Mayor Orville Hubbard of Dearborn, Televantelist and Presidential candidate Pat Robertson, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Nour of Jordan, Nelson Mandela, Ambassador Moallam of Syria, Rabbi Meir Kahane, the racist Israeli who was assassinated, Hanan Ashrawi, the Palestinian spokesperson, Vice President Khaddam of Syria, Shlomo Gazit, former head of israeli military intelligence, Archbishop Vigneron of Detroit, and Sibylle Laurischk.

I have separate podcasts on Jimmy Carter, Orville Hubbard, Queen Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela, and Rabbi Kahana.

My son Greg, who was four when we met Vice President Spiro Agnew, reminded me recently that, "I shook hands with Spiro Agnew." I had forgotten that, but he definitely deserves his moment in the sun.

This was a recorded zoom lecture that was then shared with students. Sorry that this podcast platform will not allow zoom images.

Note that I also have a lecture on Memorable Students. That was posted back in 2020.