Ellis Sandoz

George Ellis Sandoz, Jr. (Louisiana State University political science professor and author)
Born	February 10, 1931 New Orleans, Louisiana Resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Died	September 19, 2023 (aged 92) Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Political Party	Republican
Spouse	Theresa Alverne Hubley Sandoz (married 1957-2011, her death) Children: Ellis Sandoz, III Jonathan David Sandoz Lisa Sandoz Robinson Erica Sandoz Cooper Alma mater: Louisiana State University (B.A. and M.A.) University of Munich (Ph.D.)
Military Service
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps Service at Camp Pendleton, California
Years of service	1953-1956
Rank	First Lieutenant

George Ellis Sandoz, Jr., known as Ellis Sandoz (February 10, 1931 – September 19, 2023), was a distinguished professor and academic who wrote ten scholarly books in the fields of political science, philosophy, and international relations.

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he was the son of George Ellis Sandoz, Sr. (1889-1965), a dentist originally from Opelousas, Louisiana, and the former Ruby Odom (1899-1983), a native of Batesville, Mississippi. After the receipt of bachelor's and master's degrees at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Sandoz joined the United States Marine Corps in 1953. With service at Camp Pendleton in California, he rose to the rank of first lieutenant before his honorable discharge in 1956. As an undergraduate at LSU, he played the trumpet in the marching band and was the commander of his fraternity, Sigma Nu.^[1]

Sandoz's teaching career began at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston under the president F. Jay Taylor. He soon left that institution for what is now Texas A&M University - Commerce in Commerce in northeast Texas. He settled at LSU, where he taught for thirty-five years and was the Hermann Moyse Distinguished Professor of Political Science. He was recognized for his scholarship in Canada, Norway, Italy, and Guatemala as well as the United States. He was an advisor to the establishment of the Czech Republic and a separate Slovakia. Professor Rouven J. Steeves of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, in his review of Sandoz's book Give Me Liberty, said: "Ellis Sandoz is a metaphysician of the soul, mystic of the Christian faith, and a scientist of politics."^[1]

Sandoz joined the LSU political science department in 1978 and became its chairman the next year. He founded the Eric Voegelin Institute for American Renaissance Studies. Eric Voegelin (1901-1985) was a philosopher and former LSU professor who had barely evaded capture by the Gestapo in Nazi Germany before coming to teach at LSU. Sandoz studied with Voegelin as an undergraduate at LSU and went to the University of Munich to complete his doctorate under Voegelin, the only American to have done so. Sandoz studied also at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He took a teaching post in 1959 at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, at which he also started a chapter of Sigma Nu fraternity.^[1]

In 1957, Sandoz married the former Theresa Alverne Hubley (1927-2011), a graduate of Centenary College in her native Shreveport who pursued a career singing opera, including a leading role in "Madame Butterfly."^[2] The two met in Heidelburg, Germany at that time, where she was a lyric soprano, and he was on a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Heidelburg. Alverne switched career goals after the birth in 1958 of their first child, Ellis, III. By 1967, the couple had three other children. In 1968, Sandoz headed to ETSU, as chairman of the newly created political science department. There he worked to enhance the graduate studies and to support young scholars in pursuit of their goals.^[1]

One of those students was the former policeman and attorney Theodore B. "Ted" Lyon of Rockwall, Texas, later a Democrat member of both houses of the Texas state legislature.^[3]

After the 1989 Velvet Revolution which split Czechoslovakia into two countries, Sandoz was invited to discuss before the Czech Federal Assembly The Federalist, essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. He worked with President Vaclav Havel regarding the constitutions for the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. In 1995, he was awarded the University Medal and Rector's Certificate by Palacky University of Olomouc in the Czech Republic. He also traveled to Norway to present a series of lectures on Voegelin sponsored by the University of Oslo. He founded the Eric Voegelin Society and was once the president of the Philadelphia Society. He lectured at the University of Genoa and the University Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. At LSU, Sandoz received the university's Gold Medal as "Distinguished Research Master." He was inducted to Phi Beta Kappa as the chapter's first alumnus member. In 1982, U.S. President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the National Council for the Humanities. In 2014, the Library of Congress called on Sandoz to consult regarding a major exhibit planned for the 800th anniversary of the adoption of the English Magna Carta of 1215.^[1]

One of his last works is Republicanism, Religion, and the Soul of America, released in 2006. The book describes how Protestant Christianity had a formulated role in the founding of the American Republic.^[4]

Sandoz died peacefully on September 19, 2023, twelve years after the passing of his wife. The couple had four surviving children, sons, Ellis, III, and Jonathan David Sandoz, and daughters, Lisa Sandoz Robinson and Erica Sandoz Cooper. Services were held at the University Baptist Church on Highland Road in Baton Rouge. He is interred along with his wife at Port Hudson National Cemetery in Zachary in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana.^[1]