Remembering Dr. Kaplan, A Great Supporter of True Parents

On September 27, one of True Parents’ most beloved supporters, who is also one of their deepest admirers, Dr. Morton A. Kaplan, passed away quietly in Chicago on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (5778) at 96 years of age. Dr. Kaplan was the Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at the prestigious University of Chicago. He once simply stated, “Knowing Rev. Moon has made me a better human being.”

Dr. Kaplan was chosen by True Parents to be the chairman of the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) during the 1970s and would later become chairman of the Professors World Peace Academy and publisher of The World and I magazine. The 23rd ICUS, which was held in Korea on February 5, 2017 as part of the Cheon Il Guk (God’s Kingdom of Eternal Peace) Leaders Assembly at the Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center, served as a world-level revival of the work ICUS has continued to carry out since the 1970s. Most recently, True Mother mentioned Dr. Kaplan in the speech she delivered at Madison Square Garden, noting that at True Father’s request Dr. Kaplan had publicly announced the death of communism.

It brought True Parents great joy to have Dr. Kaplan with all his quirky humor introduce them at various speaking events in Chicago. 

The alumni board at the University of Chicago at one point rejected Dr. Kaplan’s nomination to become chairman of the university’s Political Science Department because of their fear that his involvement with Rev. Moon would cost them significant alumni dollars, to which Dr. Kaplan responded, “Don’t feel sorry for me; I would not trade ten academic chairmanships for my lifelong relationship with Rev. Moon.”

Dr. Kaplan was born on May 9, 1921 in Philadelphia. He was educated at Temple and Stanford Universities and received his doctorate from Columbia University, later doing post-doctorate work at Princeton and as a Carnegie traveling fellow. He is referenced in Who’s Who in America, American Men of Science, Who’s Who in World Science from Antiquity to the Present and Who’s Who in the World. His international academic best seller, System and Process in International Politics, broke the mold in political science by combining systems, game, cybernetic and recursive concepts on the nature of knowing. Throughout his life he would continue to explore the finding of an objective basis for moral judgements.

Dr. Kaplan was preceded in death by his beautiful, African-American, opera-singer wife, Mrs. Essie Kaplan, just a few months prior to him earlier this year. Dr. Gordon Anderson and Dr. Thomas Walsh were fortunate to have had the chance to deliver some Il Hwa Korean Ginseng to Mrs. Kaplan, a gift to her directly from True Mother. Dr. Kaplan is buried beside his beloved wife at Oakwood Cemetery in Chicago.