Background
Everett Carll Ladd was born on September 24, 1937, in Saco, Maine, United States. He was a son of Everett Carll Ladd and Agnes Mary (MacMillan) Ladd.
administrator educator author polling expert
Everett Carll Ladd was born on September 24, 1937, in Saco, Maine, United States. He was a son of Everett Carll Ladd and Agnes Mary (MacMillan) Ladd.
In 1959, Everett graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Bates College. Later, in 1964, he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Political Science from Cornell University.
During the period from 1963 till 1964, Ladd held a post of associate dean for Student and Public Affairs at Cornell University, Ithaca. In 1964, he joined the University of Connecticut in Storrs as a professor of political science and remained in this position until his retirement in 1999. In 1968, Ladd was appointed the director of the Social Science Data Center, which later became the Institute for Social Inquiry.
In 1977, Everett was appointed an advisory editor in social science at W. W. Norton & Company. The same year, in 1977, he was made co-executive director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut, a post he held till 1979, when he was promoted to the post of executive director and president of that establishment. Ladd remained in those positions till 1999. It's worth noting, that, in 2015, the Roper Center moved from the University of Connecticut to Cornell University.
Later, in 1986, Everett began working as a research associate at the Center for the Study of Social and Political Change and Institute for the Study of Economic Culture. Between 1987 and 1990, he acted as the trustee of the National Council on Public Polls. Moreover, throughout his career, Ladd served as a visiting professor at Yale University and Harvard University. He also taught at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington.
During his career, Everett wrote nearly a dozen books on politics in the United States, including "American Political Parties: Social Change and Political Response" (1970), "Where Have All the Voters Gone? The Fracturing of America's Political Parties" (1978), as well as a widely used university textbook on American government, titled "The American Polity: The People and Their Government" (1985), among others. He was also a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines.
It's also worth noting, that from 1987 through 1995, Ladd was a columnist for The Christian Science Monitor newspaper. He also spent ten years as senior editor of Public Opinion magazine and six years as opinion-sampling editor at The American Enterprise magazine.
Everett Carll Ladd was a notable polling expert, political science educator and author. He was also known as executive director and president of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research and was chiefly responsible for its rise as the world's richest archive of public opinion research. Under Ladd's leadership, the center launched the first online archive of polls, conducted in the United States and abroad, and it now collects poll results from more than 14,000 surveys.
It's worth mentioning, that Ladd was also known as the director of the Institute for Social Inquiry, a polling group, that is affiliated with the Roper Center and is part of the University of Connecticut. In his recent years, Everett became well known as a critic of some trends in polling.
Everett Carll Ladd was the recipient of fellowships and grants from different establishments, including the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Institute for Educational Affairs, the Hoover Institution at Stanford and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
(Electoral realignment, referring originally to a major sh...)
1991("What's Wrong" contains data from hundreds of public opin...)
1998Ladd emphasized the importance of preserving poll research "so that for generations to come, social science would have the benefit of studying the public's voice - something so valued in a democracy". He advocated for the use of public opinion to ensure, that democracy was responsive to the will of the people.
In addition, Ladd was critical of grand models of realignment and focused instead on highly specific details in major presidential elections.
Everett was a member of the American Political Science Association, American Sociological Association, American Association for Public Opinion Research, New England Political Science Association, Academy of Political Science, Cosmos Club (Washington), Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Sigma Rho.
Ladd married Cynthia Louise (Northway) Ladd on June 13, 1959. Their marriage produced four children - Everett Carll Ladd III, Corina Ladd, Melissa Ann Teed and Benjamin Ladd.
