Tributes have been pouring in for Ronald W. Walters, the distinguished political analyst and scholar at Howard University and the University of Maryland who died Sept. 10 after a long illness. He was 72.

University of Maryland spokesman Lee Tune said Saturday Walters died after an illness. He had been suffering from lung cancer.


Walters spent 25 years at Howard before becoming director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland.

In 1984, he served as a deputy campaign manager for the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential bid and consulted again on Jackson’s second campaign in 1988.

Walters was born in Wichita, Kan., in 1938. He graduated from Fisk University and spent most of his professional life in the Washington area after earning his master’s degree and Ph.D. in international studies from American University.

Jealous said Walters served as a mentor and friend to the NAACP “and was seen by many within the organization as one of the world’s greatest intellects and a civil rights pioneer.”

“Dr. Walters played an irreplaceable role in guiding generations of black political scientists and political leaders,” Jealous said.

This report was supplemented with material from The Associated Press.