Ross M. Lence

Ross Marlo Anthony Lence, was a professor of political science at the University of Houston from 1971 to 2006, where he was John and Rebecca Moores Scholar and held the Ross M. Lence Distinguished Teaching Chair. He taught political philosophy, American political thought, and American government as a member of the political science and honors college faculties. His edited volume of the works of John C. Calhoun, Union and Liberty: The Political Philosophy of John C. Calhoun, is one of the foremost references on Calhoun.

Lence was the recipient of an unprecedented number of Teaching Excellence Awards from the University of Houston and the State of Texas. In January 2007, in memory of Lence, the college of liberal arts and social sciences at the University of Houston renamed its teaching excellence awards the Ross M. Lence Awards for Teaching Excellence in the college of liberal arts and social sciences.

Biography
Lence was born in Whitefish, Montana, on December 19, 1943. His father, Marlo, was a foreman on the Great Northern Railway; his mother, Nickie stayed home to raise Ross and his brother, John, before taking a job to run a photography studio. Ross graduated from Whitefish High School with a 4.0 GPA and was valedictorian of his class. After completing his bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago, in 1966 Ross studied at Georgetown University, then at Indiana University under Charles S. Hyneman, who took Ross on a 15,000-mile, 5-year trip across America to give Ross first-hand experience of the country. He graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in 1970 with a Ph.D. In 1970, Ross researched at The British Museum.

He began teaching at the University of Houston in 1971, where he also served as director of undergraduate studies in the department of political science for 23 years. Throughout his career, Lence was a perennial participant, leader, and director at Liberty Fund Colloquia. He died on July 11, 2006, in Houston, Texas, after a bout with pancreatic cancer.

Scholarship
As a scholar, Ross published articles and edited books on American Political Thought. His article on Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence offered a deliberate, close reading of the Declaration as the key founding document in American political history. This article has been made accessible with permission.