On Tuesday afternoon, the Elizabethtown College community mourned the loss of Dr. W. Wesley McDonald, professor of political science at the College.

McDonald has been at the College since 1980 after earning his undergraduate degree in political science from Towson State University and his graduate degree from Bowling Green State University. He later earned his doctoral degree from Catholic University in 1982.

During his time at the College, McDonald published several scholarly articles mainly focused on American conservatism, American electoral politics and campaigns, classic films and politics, political novels and  the history of Western political ideas and modern ideologies. His research had granted him appearances on C-SPAN in Oct. 2004 and Penn Cable Network with colleague Fletcher McClellan in April 2013.

McDonald served as the chairman of the College’s pre-law program, a faculty advisor for the College Republicans campus club, a member of the American Political Science Association, a member of the Philadelphia Society and a member of the executive board of the Pennsylvania Political Science Association.