Francis M. Wilhoit

Francis "Frank" Marion Wilhoit (April 24, 1920 – June 9, 2010) was an American political scientist and author, who was the Thomas F. Sheehan Professor of Political Science at Drake University.

Wilhoit was born in 1920 in North Carolina.

He attended Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor's degree, a master in public affairs, and a PhD in Political Science.

He was friends with Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski in college.

Wilhoit worked in military intelligence, as a cryptographer for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II prior to going to college.

He also worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Wilhoit taught in Georgia and Florida.

He joined the faculty in the department of Political Science at Drake University in Iowa in 1961.

In 1967, he spoke about the history of slavery as part of the Progressive Young Negro Enterprises's Negro Heritage Series.

One of his books was about massive resistance in the Southern United States.

Wilhoit was awarded the 1973 Chastain Prize for it.

In 1976, he accused a Christian pastor in Texas who denounced the publication of Playboy but had supported Jim Crow laws decades earlier of hypocrisy.

This quotation is often incorrectly attributed to Francis M. Wilhoit:

"Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."

He was Thomas F. Sheehan Professor from 1981 to 1985, and he retired in 1990.

He wrote several books.

Wilhoit was vocal in his opposition to racism.

He died on June 9, 2010, in Carthage, North Carolina, at age 90.

However, it was actually a 2018 blog response by 59-year-old Ohio composer Frank Wilhoit, years after Francis Wilhoit's death.

Wilhoit lived alone, and was an opera aficionado.