HWS News
15 April 2025 • Faculty Honoring a Legacy: The Professor Iva E. Deutchman Annual Fund Scholarship
To preserve her impact and influence on HWS students, the family of the late Professor Iva Deutchman establishes a scholarship in her honor.
Following a brief illness, retired Political Science Professor Iva Deutchman passed away on Jan. 3, leaving behind a dedicated community of former students, family and friends. To honor her legacy, her brother and sister-in-law, Leonard and Joanne Deutchman, have established a scholarship in her name.
“In talking with Hobart and William Smith alumni since Iva’s death, what has touched me so much is how many of them said ‘Iva changed my life,’” says Joanne. “Her passion for education and commitment to her students is what drove my sister-in-law every day. It was the heart of everything she did.”
The Deutchmans invite the HWS community to join them in supporting The Professor Iva E. Deutchman Annual Fund Scholarship, ensuring her dedication to shaping students’ academic journeys continues.
For 32 years, Deutchman was a dedicated scholar, teacher and mentor. Joining HWS in 1987, Deutchman chaired the Political Science Department, helped launch the Media & Society Program, led the Committee on Academic Affairs and the Honors Committee, and founded the campus chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society. She also co-founded the Day on the Hill Program, providing students firsthand exposure to politics and policy in Washington, D.C. An expert on modern conservatism and U.S. politics, her work was widely published and frequently cited in national and local media. Her courses, including “Modern American Conservatism,” “Media and Politics,” “Campaigns and Elections” and “Sex and Power,” challenged students to think critically and engage deeply with political discourse.
“So many people have also said how much they miss that laugh,” Joanne shares. “She may have only been 5 foot, 3 inches tall, but she always had the biggest presence in the room.”
To celebrate Iva, the Deutchmans have arranged for a few family members and friends to attend the Sept. 7 Yankees-Blue Jays game, which would have been her 73rd birthday. “The Yankees meant everything to Iva,” Joanne says. “We’re even planning to have a message about her displayed on the big screen.”
Merging her passions for teaching, politics and baseball, Deutchman developed the HWS course “Baseball and American Culture,” using sport as a lens to explore the political and racial struggles in society.
A lifelong Yankees fan, Deutchman was born in the Bronx, N.Y. and raised in Lakewood, N.J. She earned her B.A. from Hofstra University and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Her brother Leonard recalls how she inspired him to push himself further, while Joanne fondly remembers Iva calling Leonard her “brilliant baby brother.”
In honor of Deutchman’s remarkable life, Joanne and Leonard encourage those who knew and loved her to contribute to the scholarship in her memory. “She came into this world, made her mark, and left too quickly. We want to support HWS students and the work of other great teachers like Iva,” Joanne says.
