Fredric J. Fleron Jr. ’59, ’61 AM

Fredric J. Fleron Jr. ’59, ’61 AM, of Westfield, Mass.; June 2. He was professor emeritus of political science at the University at Buffalo. He wrote seven books on Russian foreign and domestic policy and technology transfer and was preparing two more at the time of his death. While at Brown, he was a teaching assistant and lecturer. He took summer courses at Harvard and then entered the graduate program in political science and Russian studies at Indiana University with a Ford Foundation graduate fellowship and completed his doctorate in government. He taught at the University of Kentucky for five years and joined the University at Buffalo in 1970. At UB he served terms as acting department chairman and director of graduate studies. He developed a new general education curriculum for UB undergraduates and served for several years as associate vice provost for undergraduate education. After retiring in 2003, he became a university research scholar. He lived in the mountains of Colorado for a few years and then moved to Westfield, where he was an adjunct faculty member at Westfield State University from 2008 to 2018. He taught numerous undergraduate and graduate courses on aspects of Soviet and American politics and foreign policy. In the 1970s he was invited to serve as a member of the East-West Technology Transfer Advisory Panel for the U.S. Congress. He took part in conferences on Soviet foreign policy sponsored by Johns Hopkins University and served as a consultant to the CIA, the U.S. State Department, the White House staff, and the British Broadcasting Corp. In addition to his books, he contributed to more than 20 book chapters and articles for academic journals and was editor of the Comparative Studies of Communism newsletter. He was an associate of the Harriman Institute on Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies at Columbia University from 1992 to 1995 and was nominated for a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1992. He was a civil rights activist and took part in Vietnam War protests. He was a member of the board of directors of the Central Kentucky Civil Liberties Union and served on the board of the Southern Conference Education Fund. He enjoyed many types of music, sang, and played the guitar, banjo, dobro, and cello. He attended concerts and festivals and each year compiled a CD of “Fred’s Favorites” for his friends. He also enjoyed cooking. He is survived by his wife, Kimberly; a daughter; a son; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.