A Piece of Soka History: John Montgomery’s Legacy at SUA

Walking through the antechamber of the Founders Hall Meeting Room, visitors may notice a portrait and plaque honoring John Montgomery (1920-2008). It hangs next to photographs of other eminent scholars and human rights advocates affiliated with Soka University of America. Montgomery’s portrait stands as a quiet testament to his contributions, yet many students, faculty, and staff may not be aware of who he was, his influence on SUA’s early development, or his lasting impact on the Pacific Basin Research Center.

Montgomery, professor emeritus of public administration at the Harvard Kennedy School, was an internationally recognized authority on development, governance, and social policy. His early career included a defining experience as a military government officer assisting with the postwar reconstruction of Hiroshima. This work ignited his lifelong dedication to rebuilding societies through just governance and human rights — commitments that would later align closely with SUA’s founding ideals.

After earning his doctorate in Japanese history and joining the Harvard faculty, Montgomery became the first full-time professor of public administration at the Kennedy School and was later named the Ford Foundation Professor of International Studies. Over the course of his academic career, he advised governments in more than 80 countries and authored influential works on land reform, foreign aid, human rights, and the complexities of development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Montgomery’s relationship with SUA began before the Aliso Viejo campus opened. Meeting several times with SUA founder Daisaku Ikeda in the early 1990s, he found strong philosophical resonance in Ikeda’s focus on human dignity, global citizenship, and peace. In 1991, Ikeda appointed Montgomery as the inaugural director of the Pacific Basin Research Center — then based at the Harvard Kennedy School — where he laid the foundation for what would become one of SUA’s cornerstone academic institutions. He served as director until 2004.

During his tenure, the Pacific Basin Research Center became a hub of engaged, socially conscious scholarship. Montgomery guided the center’s early research agenda and oversaw the awarding of dozens of grants and postdoctoral fellowships examining critical issues across Asia and the Pacific Rim.

In 1995, Montgomery delivered the commencement address at the SUA graduate school in Calabasas, speaking on leadership, global responsibility, and public service. He also shared his wisdom with the undergraduate student government in 2002. Nathan Gauer ’05, a member of the student government at the time, recalls Montgomery as a remarkably perceptive person with an impressive depth of character.

“Professor Montgomery always made time to meet directly with students during the early founding years of SUA,” Gauer said. “He listened to students’ voices with great interest and attention, and he cared deeply about our lives and experiences on campus.”

Montgomery’s legacy lives on in the ongoing work of the Pacific Basin Research Center and the annual postdoctoral fellowship that bears his name. His story enriches the institutional history of SUA, reminding students that the university’s commitment to human rights and global citizenship is grounded in the dedication of real individuals whose lives embodied those ideals.