Dennis McElrath, Stevenson provost (1985-1991) and founding member of the Stevenson College and Sociology Department faculty died on November 15 2016. Dennis joined the Sociology Department as an associate professor in 1965. He served two terms as Stevenson provost and twice was the chair of the Academic Senate (1983-84 and 1992-93). Dennis also served as Director of the Padua Study Center in the Education Abroad Program for two years starting in 1974. Stevenson College is saddened by the loss of a great servant to the college system and to the university as a whole.
Dennis earned his PhD from Yale University in 1958 and worked at USC and Northwestern University and was a Fulbright Research Scholar at the Universities of Padua and Rome before joining the faculty at UCSC at the opening of the new university in 1965. Dennis served as assistant to Charles Page, the first provost of Stevenson College, and together they recruited the first fifty faculty to Stevenson College and the then Boards of Study (now called academic departments). Charles and Dennis were able to hire five female faculty in that first six months, a point of pride when compared to Cowell College's one female hire.
Dennis worked on problems of urbanization and social differentiation and made significant contributions to the social area analysis model. His work concentrated on Paris and especially Rome.
He is survived by his wife Toni and daughter Jennifer Monroe, son-in-law James Monroe, his seven grandchildren Salvatore, Michele, Francesco, Jamie, Annie, Lia and Sarah, and two great-grandchildren, Tyler and Dylan.
