Arthur Mac Mahon - Biography

Biography

MacMahon was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 29, 1890, the son of Benjamin and Abbie MacMahon. He received his B.A. from Columbia University in 1912 and his M.A. in 1913. Immediately after receiving his M.A., MacMahon began teaching as an instructor in Columbia's government department. During this period, MacMahon also befriended the artist Georgia O'Keeffe and helped to introduce her to liberal political ideas. While teaching, MacMahon continued his studies and completed his PhD at Columbia in 1923. He was then promoted to assistant professor. Throughout his early years at Columbia, MacMahon worked closely with the historian Charles A. Beard, whom he considered an important mentor.

After receiving his PhD, MacMahon became an important academic voice in the study of government and public administration. Some of his earliest pieces were yearly reports on events in Congress, published in the American Political Science Review from 1927 to 1931, that sparked new interest in research on the legislative process.

MacMahon's career took off in the 1930s as he became "an exceptionally popular teacher and his department's best-known faculty member." The central theme of MacMahon's scholarly work was the study "of the various obstacles to effective management found in public agencies," leading MacMahon to begin the development of the study of public administration. MacMahon was also one of the first scholars to attempt to use empirical studies and methods borrowed from the other sciences in study of the functioning of the government.

In recognition of his work in public administration, MacMahon was appointed as staff member of the Brownlow Commission, which focused on changes to the federal bureaucracy. MacMahon's work on management for the Commission was very influential, and led to changes in the organization of the executive branch. MacMahon's work with the commission also helped provide the material for his later academic work.

In 1945, MacMahon was named the Eaton Professor of Public Administration at Columbia, holding that chair until 1958. In that period, MacMahon also held temporary visiting appointments at Stanford, Princeton, and Yale although he remained firmly committed to Columbia, where he had studied and taught for over 40 years.

MacMahon was a lifelong member of the American Political Science Association, and served as its President in the 1946-1947 year. He sat on the board of a number of other organizations, including the American Society of Public Administration (of which he was a founding member), and served as the editor of Political Science Quarterly.

After officially retiring in 1958, MacMahon moved to Poughkeepsie, New York, but traveled frequently teaching and lecturing in Turkey, India, Uganda, and Argentina. In 1978, MacMahon entered a nursing home, where he lived until his death in 1980.