American Association of Public Opinion Research

From AAPORNET (aapornet@usc.edu), October 17, 1997

OSCAR W. RIEGEL, 1902-1997

As most of you already know, Oscar W. Riegel, a major intellectual influence during AAPOR's formative years, died on August 26 in Lexington, Virginia, of complications resulting from a stroke the previous day; he was 94 and a resident of Glasgow, Virginia.

O.W. Riegel, as he was known professionally, served The Public Opinion Quarterly as Associate Editor from its birth, in 1936, until 1944; he remained a member of POQ's Advisory Board until 1954.  As a founding editor, he influenced the three-page "Editorial Foreword" which introduced POQ's first issue, in January 1937 (eight years before the first organization of  AAPOR), which dedicated the new journal to the study of public opinion from a perspective grounded in "advertising, public relations, press, radio, motion pictures," the hot information technologies of the time.  He was also sole author of two separate articles, "New Frontiers in Radio" and "Press, Radio, and the Spanish Civil War," in POQ's premiere issue.

During these same years, he held many other consultantships and administrative activities related to journalism, propaganda, public opinion and communications.  He also authored four monographs and chapters in six books on public opinion, journalism and communications, including an early work influential in the development of the study of world public opinion:   "Making World Opinion--Mobilizing Propaganda," in F.J. Brown, C. Hodges, and J. Slabey, eds., Contemporary World Politics. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1939.

In 1950, the U.S. State Department commissioned him to go to Germany to assess the state of public opinion polling, which, in his words, "our government regarded as a democratizing instrument and therefore a useful tool for the 're-education' of Germans."  During his stay in Germany, he visited--as he later wrote -- "every public opinion and market research agency, both academic and commercial, from Kiel to Munich and in West Berlin."  This research resulted in a major monograph:  "Public Opinion Research and Training in West Germany," published by the U.S. Department of State in 1950.
 
The following year, Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs sent him to Belgium to learn whether the attitudes of Belgians who had spent time in the United States on fellowships andscholarship grants differed from the attitudes of those who had not.  His official title was Director of the Cultural Contacts Project for Western Europe, funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.  His study, completed with the help of a polling agency in Brussels, appeared as a three-volume monograph, "Long-term Effects of Exchange of Persons," published by the Cultural Contacts Project, Washington, D.C.
 
On February 27, 1969, AAPOR's Executive Council voted him its first Honorary Life Member (HLM), thereby creating an exclusive new membership classification.  By 1986, AAPOR had 39 Honorary Life Members; currently there are 63 (HLMers are listed in the front of each annual Directory of Members).

Over his lifetime, he published more than 60 articles in various professional journals, including 12 pieces in The Public Opinion Quarterly:
 

1937	Riegel, O.W.  "New Frontiers in Radio."  January.
	Riegel, O.W.  "Press, Radio, and the Spanish Civil War."  January
	Riegel, O.W.  "Hispanic-American Press Congress."  April

 

1939	Riegel, O.W.  "Notes on the Broadcasting Code."  October

 

1940	Riegel, O.W.  "Press, Radio, Films: A Quarterly Survey of International  Communications."  March

 

1941	Riegel, O.W.  "Radio-Press News Exchange."  March
	Riegel, O.W.  "Vital Statistics of the Press."  June

 

1942	Riegel, O.W.  "Eavesdropping on Europe at War."  Fall

 

1947	Riegel, O.W.  "Hungary--Proving Ground for Soviet-American Relations."   Spring

 

1954	Riegel, O.W.  "Residual Effects of Exchange of Persons."  Fall

 

1969	Riegel, O.W.  "The News in Megalopolis (review)."  Summer

 

1969-70

Riegel, O.W.  "The First Freedom (review)."  Winter

 

For a brief review of Oscar Riegel's fascinating and noteworthy professional career outside of AAPOR, see the attached obituary, written by Wolfgang Saxon, which appeared in the August 26, 1997, New York Times.  For additional information, including a more complete bibliography, see the memorial website established by his eldest son, Kurt W., at   http://wlu.edu/~owr/

James R. Beniger
AAPOR President

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