Dan E. Caldwell

Dan E. Caldwell, FAC, of Pacific Palisades, Calif.; Jan. 8, after a four-year battle with cancer.He earned his bachelor’s degree at Stanford University and upon graduation, he entered active duty in the U.S. Navy, where he was a staff assistant in the Office of Emergency Preparedness, Executive Office of the President, in Washington, D.C. He was later assigned to teach national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He received a master’s in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and returned to Stanford, where he earned a master’s and PhD in political science before beginning his career at Pepperdine in 1978. While at Pepperdine, he twice served as president of the Seaver College faculty and played significant roles in growing the political science program and launching the international studies program. He was integral in establishing the Scholarship Initiatives Office on campus, and was an advocate for Pepperdine’s student-veterans. He founded the Pepperdine Committee on Student-Veterans, which led to the creation of the Office of Student-Veteran Affairs in 2020. He had visiting appointments at UCLA, the University of Southern California, and Brown, where he helped to establish the Center for Foreign Policy Development (now the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs). He was also a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and, for many years, the chair of its academic outreach initiative. He received many teaching awards. He was active in Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church and enjoyed hiking, skiing, boating, and playing tennis. He is survived by his wife, Lora; two daughters; a son and daughter-in-law; a son-in-law; and two grandchildren.