James Alan Spady, a vice dean of Penn’s former School of Public and Urban Policy who most recently served as the director of the Fels Institute of Government, died on October 21. He was 90.

Dr. Spady was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and grew up in Union City. He graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1955, then began his career as an aerospace engineer at Kearfott for two years. He went on to earn a JD degree from Columbia Law School in 1960, and during the 1960s practiced intellectual property law in New York City with the Sullivan and Cromwell firm. In 1970, he was admitted into the Harvard Kennedy School as a Littauer Fellow; while there, he was invited to enroll in the PhD program by Harvard government department professors Sam Beer and Edward Banfield. He completed his PhD at Harvard in 1976.

During the early 1960s, Dr. Spady entered politics as a volunteer, running campaigns for U.S. Congress and N.J. Assembly and serving on a local planning board, then served as a part-time legislative aide to New York Mayor Ed Koch and to the N.J. Senate Majority Leader. While earning his PhD, Dr. Spady was asked by New Jersey Governor Richard Hughes to create and lead the New Jersey State Law Enforcement Planning Agency to implement new federal criminal justice legislation, and subsequently, the fifty state LEPA directors elected him president of their new association to present collective feedback to the U.S. Department of Justice. Dring the 1970s, Dr. Spady was also the chair of University of Iowa’s graduate program in urban and regional planning.

After earning his PhD, Dr. Spady came to the University of Pennsylvania, where he served in a variety of dual faculty/administrative roles until his retirement in 1997. He began as a popular professor of undergraduate courses on American government and politics. In 1979, Dr. Spady’s role became primarily administrative when President Martin Meyerson appointed him Director of the Office of the President. He continued in that position to facilitate the transition to President Sheldon Hackney’s administration.  In 1982, he became director of the Fels Institute of Government and chairman of its graduate program in government administration, roles he held until 1997. Under Dr. Spady’s direction, the program was an immediate success, producing graduates in government leadership roles, and became closely affiliated with the Graduate School of Fine Arts. Dr. Spady’s extensive volunteer engagement in local politics bolstered the program, which sought to create “dual competence” in graduates—leaders capable of understanding and using technical methods while appreciating and skilled in navigating organizational and political contexts.  Crucial to immersing students in “the other culture that is politics” were Dr. Spady’s legendary “workshops”—weekly three-hour meetings over dinner in the evening, each centered on an eminent visitor, who discussed candidly with students how they managed and led, using their own personal histories as material.

Dr. Spady often received emails and phone calls from graduates letting him know of his impact on their lives and careers.  In a recent email, Seattle City Councilman Alex Pedersen commented that “Nearly every day I am reminded how generous and valuable Dr. Spady’s training was.” Andrea Austin, a partner at Husch Blackwell law firm in Denver, noted that “Jim changed the trajectory of my life, as I know he did for so many others, and influenced so many aspects of the professional I’ve become.” Paul Borgese of the Triana Group noted that “he taught me more about life than anyone.”

Dr. Spady is survived by his wife, June Kinney; his three sons, Jefferson (Carmen), James (Wendy), and John (Lisa); and his grandchildren, Nicholas, Oliver, Spencer and Xiaobo.

A celebration of life will be held on Saturday,  April 13, 2024, 10 a.m. to noon at the Fels Institute of Government at Penn, 3814 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Contributions in Dr. Spady’s memory may be made to the James A. Spady Scholarship Fund at the Fels Institute of Government.