In memoriam: L. John Roos, professor emeritus of political science

L. John Roos, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame for 44 years, died in Nashville, Tennessee, on Oct. 21, his 79th birthday.
“John was a wonderful colleague and friend, and there is so much to be said about his contributions to Notre Dame as a teacher and intellectual,” Peri Arnold, a Notre Dame political scientist, said. “In the spirit of celebrating him, I would like to mention a quality that was less apparent except to those who worked closely with him. John was a deeply principled person, consistently promoting fairness and transparency in our departmental and University practices, sometimes against official policy. We are better today because of John’s work.”
Born in Houston, Roos earned his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in political science from Notre Dame in 1965, then took his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago, writing his dissertation on “Natural Law and Natural Rights in Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle.”
Roos returned to Notre Dame in 1969 to begin his four-plus-decade career at the University. A multidimensional scholar, he taught and conducted research on such topics as congressional reform, campaign finance, local government reform, ancient and medieval political theory, Catholic political thought, politics and literature, Flannery O’Connor and Aquinas. He completed an inventory of the papers of Notre Dame Professor Gerhart Niemeyer and was director of the philosophy, politics and economics minor, for which he taught a course titled The Justice Seminar.
Roos received the 1983 Sheedy Award, presented to the faculty member in the College of Arts and Letters who has sustained excellence in research and teaching over a wide range of courses. He also won the University-wide Joyce and Dockweiler Awards for undergraduate teaching and mentorship and a Notre Dame Presidential Award for service to the campus community. Notre Dame’s Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy annually presents the John Roos Award to the students with the best senior honors thesis in the area of American politics.
Christina Wolbrecht, a past director of the Rooney Center, wrote in a tweet: “John was an exemplar of the kind of dedicated service that makes academia work.”
In addition to his work on campus, Roos was active in local politics and community-based research, and with co-author Karl King published a report titled “Benchmarking South Bend,” for which they received the Engaged Scholarship Award for a “lifetime of scholarship for social improvement.”
Roos is survived by his wife of 53 years, Carole; two children, Eleanor and Andrew; a granddaughter; and four siblings. A memorial Mass will be held at a later date.
Latest Faculty & Staff
- Notre Dame’s Fightin’ Irish Battalion receives Department of Defense award as nation’s top Army ROTC programThe United States Department of Defense honored the University of Notre Dame’s Army ROTC Fightin’ Irish Battalion as the nation’s top Army collegiate program for the 2023-24 academic year. This will be the first time the unit has received the department’s Educational Institution Partnership Excellence Award, which recognizes the program’s achievements in recruiting, educating, training and commissioning leaders of character to be the next generation of military officers.
- In memoriam: Karl Ameriks, the McMahon-Hank Professor of Philosophy EmeritusKarl Ameriks, the McMahon-Hank Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, died on April 28 from pancreatic cancer. He was 77. Born in post-World War II Germany, Ameriks’ family emigrated to the United States when he was a child, and he grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He received his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University. He came to the Department of Philosophy at Notre Dame in 1973 during a formative time for the department, which had transitioned from a predominantly Thomist focus to the more analytical American philosophy in the 1960s.
- Notre Dame psychologist explores how children best learn math — and yes, timed practice helpsUniversity of Notre Dame professor of psychology Nicole McNeil recently co-authored a report that examines the best way for children to learn arithmetic — whether that’s by memorizing number values and multiplication tables, or by studying math at a deeper, conceptual level. The report, “What the Science of Learning Teaches Us About Arithmetic Fluency,” was published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest and shows that children learn most effectively when instruction follows an evidence‑based cycle: grounding facts in conceptual understanding, using brief timed practice to make those facts automatic, and then returning to discussion and reflection to deepen that knowledge.
- ’Tis the season for ticks and mosquitoes. A medical entomologist talks about these pests and how to avoid them.Notre Dame expert Lee Haines explains the risks mosquitoes and ticks pose to the Midwest and discusses how the public can best protect themselves and family members (including pets) from these bloodthirsty pests.
- ND Expert on tariffs and trade policy: ‘How should the US be engaged with the rest of the world?’To make sense of the new administration's recent tariff announcements and policy changes, Robert Johnson, the Brian and Jeannelle Brady Associate Professor of Economics at Notre Dame, explains how tariffs affect global economies and what this means for U.S. engagement in global trade.
- In memoriam: W. David Solomon, founding director of the Center for Ethics and CultureW. David Solomon, associate professor of philosophy emeritus and founding director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, died on February 26, 2025. He was 81.