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1/ My dear friend Fred Greenstein, a truly magisterial scholar of the American presidency, has died. Fred was an old-fashioned, truth-seeking scholar. He valued quantitative approaches to political science, but also knew that not everything could be modeled or reduced to numbers.
2/ Fred Greenstein preached and practiced the highest standards of scholarship. If one made a factual claim, he wanted evidence. If one drew an inference, he expected its logical warrant to be produced. His demands for rigor, precision, and proof massively benefited his students.
3/ Fred Greenstein's book on Eisenhower's "hidden hand" presidency made him something of an academic celebrity--which he both enjoyed and wore lightly. What interested him most was what made the presidents he studied tick and what shaped their styles of leadership.
4/ Less well-known about Fred Greenstein than his superb and sometimes path-breaking scholarship-but no less important to him-was his love for and knowledge of jazz music. He was a walking encyclopedia of jazz. He was also a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, and friend. RIP
